European Rabbit Effects On Australia

In the year 1787, the First Fleet departed from England to land on the shores of the then penal colony of Australia. Many species prevalent in England had been added to the cargo to make Australia seem more like home to the settlers. One of the species was Oryctolagus cuniculus, commonly known as the European Rabbit or the Common Rabbit. Two types of these rabbits were introduced, the domesticated and the wild. The domesticated european rabbit was introduced and raised like other farm animals for meat. The wild rabbits were introduced for sport hunting but were never released into the wild with no supervision or to propagate and reproduce freely. In 1827, Tasmania reported freely roaming and propagating rabbits. This was the first instance …show more content…
Before the year 1867, it was illegal to hunt or kill rabbits out of hunting season, breaking this law would result in a fine of 5 australian dollars. After an outcry from the people to nullify the Parliamentary protection of the rabbits, the law was abolished in 1867. One of the main worries of the time was the effect of the rabbits on Australia and Australia’s economy as a whole. Voters would choose a candidate whose opinion of a plan for the rabbit eradication they agreed with. Due to conflict of interest, many of the bills that would have funded rabbit eradication sooner were not passed because rich landowners would be taxed extra due to their larger land holdings. Many of the candidates were sponsored and funded by the rich landowners or the landowners were their landlords which meant that any action harmful to the wealthy would not be passed. In 1871, the representatives were finally able to pass a bill that would allow people to hunt and eradicate rabbits with government funds on any lands. This bill also allowed eradication of rabbits on government lands which had never been allowed with any other invasive species eradication program or process in Australia. However, the money set aside for eradication got used by only the wealthy landowners, in particular, Mr. Dutton who was the landlord for most of the politicians and representatives in …show more content…
This was not a government-based profit as banned by the New South Wales rabbit commission and therefore was allowed. The Rye Meat Preserving Company found that this way of collecting meat worked so well that it opened an extension in Victoria called the Rabbit Preserving Company. The idea of using the slaughtered rabbits spread and soon wealthy landowners had erected rabbit treatment facilities on their estates to use the meat and furs as