Racing: Races called off after locust strike

The locust plague has hit the southern parts of Australia and has been described as the nation's biggest in 75 years. Photo / Thinkstock

Officials have been forced to abandon a public holiday race meeting in regional South Australia because of a locust plague.

The Murray Bridge Racing Club fixture fell victim to a swarm of locusts at the 11th hour yesterday.

"There is a reasonable infestation, although it is mostly confined to small pockets of the racetrack," secretary-manager John Buhagiar said.

"Two sections of the course proper have been affected but the area near the 600m mark was of most concern.

"In the end it came down to a safety issue."

The extent of the plague wasn't obvious until an increase in temperature yesterday morning.

"In the cool of the day the locusts aren't very active," Buhagiar said.

"But when there was a bit of sunlight and heat, the locusts took to the wing and it was obvious there would be a problem."

The locust plague which has hit the southern parts of Australia has been described as the nation's biggest in 75 years.

It has forced scheduling changes to South Australian and Victorian racing during the past month.

With advance warning, South Australian officials recently transferred a Gawler fixture to Morphettville in Adelaide.

In what was reported as a first for Victorian racing, officials recently switched a meeting in the state's west when a swarm descended on the Donald racetrack.

Murray Bridge has another meeting on January 12 with Buhagiar confident it will go ahead.

"We have implemented a spraying programme and the good thing is the locusts don't seem to be the voracious type - they're not eating everything," he said.

"There's no way the course proper is at risk of being damaged."

- AAP