If something stinks, in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? Odourbusters.
That's the tag given to a Queensland government taskforce charged with investigating the source of foul smells that have been invading the nostrils of residents of an Ipswich suburb, west of Brisbane.
The $2.5 million Odour Abatement Taskforce has been established after Queensland's Department of Environment received numerous reports of bad smells seeping from the Swanbank industrial area.
The department says 302 reports from 167 people in the past year have alleged bad smells from landfill and waste recycling facilities in the suburb in the past year.
Queensland Environment Minister Leeanne Enoch said a community survey had provided enough evidence to justify funding for the taskforce.
She said more than half of about 1400 survey respondents were concerned with air quality and nuisance odours.
"There have been Ipswich residents that have been making comments about this for some time," Ms Enoch told reporters.
"We need to make sure we've got all the right facts for us to act."
The 10 specialist environment officers will be charged with sniffing out the source of the problem using their "calibrated noses" and a "sniff stick", which is the nasal equivalent of a palate cleanser.
Officer Dave Darvall said the human nose was the best weapon in identifying problem odours.
"The best thing you can do to manage odour is to be out there smelling what the community smells," Mr Darvall told reporters.
"Odour is one of those things where you need people and that's why the investment is so significant because you need people on the ground."
