Watch Out Wascally Wabbits

On Christmas day 1859 Thomas Austin, a self-made wealthy settler, released 13 European wild rabbits on his estate, Winchelsea, Barwon Park, Victoria. They had been specially collected and sent to him by a relative in England.
By the late 1940s the rabbit population had rapidly increased to 600 million.
Initial tests on myxomatosis, a rabbit-specific virus, that took place in 1943 had been inconclusive.
However trials restarted in 1950.

Initially the new trials looked to be a failure but rains in December 1950 produced more mosquitoes, the vector that spread the virus and the disease spread at an incredible rate.

An animal that had thrived better than any other introduced mammal in the world was now dying out at record speed.
However, rabbits began developing a resistance to myxomatosis and something new was needed.

The deadly calicivirus was released in 1995/96

Here, South East Local Land Services with the support of local land managers and local councils, will release the Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus known as RHDV1-K5 (RHDV), the Korean variant of the existing virus already widespread in Australia, throughout our area this month.
It will be the fifth release of RHDV nationally since 2017, and the third here on the South Coast.
Since then there has been an estimated 42 per cent reduction in the feral rabbit population in NSW.
We have not seen rabbits on our place for years. When I first moved here they were everywhere. We would surface bait, fumigate burrows with phosphine or as a last resort shoot to keep them under control.
Myxo and calici were a godsend.

But the word is they are slowly becoming immune to the calicivirus.

Pet rabbit owners on the South Coast are being urged to vaccinate their pets before the latest control program rolls out.
The effect of rabbits on the environment has been catastrophic. They can survive on almost any plant matter: shoots, herbs, grasses, grains, leaf buds.
The long-term result of rapidly reproducing rabbits is overgrazing by an extremely large population, which can lead to a collapse of indigenous plants and the native animal species that eat them.
Excessive grazing also leads to soil erosion, which affects pasture yields and water quality.
It is estimated that rabbits cost the Australian economy more than $200 million per year.