Prologue
Rabbits have been around the Bingara district since the early 1900s and despite an on-going war against them, they are probably here to stay. Following their arrival in Australia on the first fleet, the spread to the north-west area would have been looked upon with fear and much trepidation. The unwelcome news of their arrival was reported by the Warialda Standard on Tuesday 28 May 1901:
'Rabbits are fast advancing on this locality and already they are reported to have been seen in several places near Bingara. Only a few days ago, a burrow was unearthed just outside the town on the Warialda Road, containing a litter of six young ones.'
Since then, Australia's effort to eradicate, or even manage the rabbit population, has proven futile and the cost continues to escalate. The control methods are many and have included the introduction of viruses, trapping, warren ripping and fines on land holders for failure to destroy the pests. However, while most efforts had some success stories, the bottom line is that the bunny is still around and unlikely to be completely eradicated unless something new comes along. However, rabbits provided an economic opportunity and the late Ken Bilsborough's recollections are included in this story as an important reminder of this.
At the community level Ken and his wife Lucy will be remembered for their association with the National Service veterans. A family member recalled their efforts: 'At the age of 18 years, Ken, like many young men, was called up for training in the National Service Scheme. In 1952 he served in the Army's 11th Battalion at Wacol in Queensland. It was because of this experience as a "Nasho" that Ken and Lucy decided to form a reunion of the National Servicemen in 1995. The inaugural march of the Nashos in Bingara took place in 1996 and with every subsequent year the march grew in size and continued to be a great success.'
History
Rabbits arrived in Australia on the First Fleet and the first populations were established in Tasmania by 1827. Regarding the release, an article in the Colonial Advocate and Tasmanian Monthly Review and Register on March 1, 1828, illustrates how the early settlers considered the rabbit as a valuable resource. The reporter had written, with a degree of scepticism:
'Mr. James King, whose speculation in breeding rabbits was so much laughed at has now on Betsey's Island upwards of 2,000 of those animals, which have all sprung from eight. In twelve months, it is supposed that the warren would contain 30,000. Mr. King's view is to export the skins to China via England.'
Thirty years later in Victoria, the Acclimatisation Society released twenty-four rabbits on Christmas Day 1859. The reason being they could be hunted as a sport and therefore help settlers feel more at home. By 1886 rabbits had spread from Victoria to the Queensland/NSW border. Four years later they had reached Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The impact on the sheep industry was huge. For example, a report by Mr. C.C.N. Lockhard in the Riverina Recorder (Balranald, Moulamein NSW) on Wednesday 25 January 1888 said:
'On that station (Kalkyne, Vic), I found that the stock had shrunk from 110,000 to 1,200 sheep. They were dying in a paddock on the homestead.'
The rabbits had totally eaten out all the pasture and the sheep had starved to death. In 1933, David G. Stead, a former Special Rabbit Menace Commissioner, provided a very frank assessment in the Bombala Times. The message he delivered was that fifty years of campaigning against the pest had proved useless. Stead said:
'One can have no hesitation in stating that, taking Australia as a whole, there is just as great an infestation as there ever has been.'
Rabbit Industry
Out of disruptions opportunities arise and that was the case with rabbits. Industries developed and while the economic activity never made up for the loss of production, never-the-less, income was generated. A paper titled The Rabbit Industry in South-East Australia, 1870-1970 by Warwick Eather and Drew Cottle, provides an understanding of the industry.
'By the late 1920s the rabbit industry in south-eastern Australia (southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and eastern South Australia) was one of the largest employers of labour in the country. Over 20,000 trappers worked full-time, trapping for carcases, skins or poisoning. Thousands were employed in numerous freezer works located in rural towns and capital cities, grading, sorting, packing, skinning, and transporting carcases by the tens of millions. Thousands more were employed by the multitude of skin buying firms located throughout rural areas and in capital cities. Hundreds sold rabbits in the streets of cities or worked in small goods shops that retailed rabbits. Ten thousand workers made...'
Part 2 will be published next week
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