Rabbits are no longer a pet in
Australia – but a serious threat to the nation’s food supply. In fact, the rabbit is Australia’s
most dangerous pest, because of the untold damage it has done to
Australia’s pasture lands…
The story of Australia’s rabbits begins in 1859 with a settler (Thomas Austin) who released two dozen rabbits on his farm near Geelong. In the absence of natural predators, these rabbits had multiplied to over thirty thousand within a short period of four years! These rabbits attacked crops and ate the grass; leaving the grassland bare and vulnerable to soil erosion. They also destroyed fruit trees by eating its bark. Though the intrepid farmer did manage to destroy some twenty thousand rabbits with the help of dogs and guns; another ten thousand rabbits escaped unhurt. These would form the nucleus of an army of rabbits that would sweep Australia…
By 1879, these rabbits – now grown into a multitude – entered New South Wales and South Australia. These provinces declared war on the rabbits. Casualties among the rabbits were heavy; but not high enough to stop them. Failing other means, a law was passed that made it mandatory for all farmers to destroy these rabbits. Meanwhile, millions of rabbits had invaded Queensland. Water holes were fenced – but to no avail. Wave upon wave of rabbits began to move westwards. Now, only Western Australia stood against the onslaught.
An army of cats was released to counter the menace. But, after some initial success, the
campaign faltered as the rabbits were so plentiful that the cats began to regard them as a mere nuisance. In despair, the government decided to build a fence over thousand miles long to fence off Western Australia from the rest of the nation. The fence – stretching over hills and valleys, farmlands and forests – was a stupendous undertaking; but by the time it was finished, the rabbits had already crossed to the other side!
Western Australia abandoned a vast stretch of territory (over hundred thousand square miles) to the advancing army of rabbits – and began to build another fence as part of a rearguard action. This fence, too, was breached by the rabbits. But the Western Australians refused to admit defeat; and began to build yet another fence. The net effect of all this fence building was to limit the rabbits to manageable proportions.
The story of Australia’s campaign against the relentless army of rabbits is unlikely to be found in most military manuals – but it carries a salutary lesson for mankind.
Nowadays, fumigation – pumping poisonous gas into the warrens – is widely used in large farms. And biological measures (rabbit-borne diseases) were finally adopted to control the rapidly expanding rabbit population. But later, it was found that the rabbits developed genetic resistance to these diseases – and their population has recovered to some extent.