Christmas Day 2009 (this very week) marks the 150th anniversary of rabbits, the wild pest kind, being released in Australia. This first 'successful' release (others tried but failed) came from just two dozen wild European rabbits imported to Barwon Park, Winchelsea near Geelong VIC, on Christmas Day 1859. They were picked up off the Brig 'Lightning' after surviving their journey from Britain to Melbourne, taken to Barwon Park, to live in pens and fed on lettuce, specially grown for them, and farmed there, to be later released by Thomas Austin, a respected landholder of the time. Those first rabbits, when released were so successful in adapting to Australia's diverse habitats from south to north and east to west, that they became a serious pest and immense plague by the 1880's.

The presence of rabbits is one of the major contributing factors causing the serious decline of native fauna and flora in Australia, from 1859 to this very Christmas day, 150 years later, even at the relatively low levels of today. But when less than two rabbits per hectare can prevent the recruitment of perennial vegetation species, the impact is hardly able to be seen by a landholder. The impact occurs before we even notice it and can become quite serious, quite soon. Current estimates have rabbits causing $206 million damage per year to agriculture alone. The impacts on biodiversity are only just being properly recognised. The efforts of the Acclimatisation Society of the day, in bringing these animals to Australia for sport shooting were an outstanding success in some ways - for their original purpose. But little did they realise just what they had unleashed on the country. So 150 years later, this deserves much reflection, and still much action, as the rabbits are still creating unnecessary and costly damage to Australia's landscapes. 

RabbitScan will be back next year with an improved website and program - thanks to some offers of support coming in and which will be announced in the new year. Keep watching this space! Your efforts at scanning your landscapes for rabbits this year have been greatly appreciated by the Rabbit

Management Advisory Group, the rabbit scientists and everyone trying to reduce the impacts of the wild pest rabbit on Australia's productivity and biodiversity. But more than that, until we received your recordings, this nation has never had the scientific data needed to determine the real distribution and density of rabbits and the ability to create an evidence base, for concerted planning, support and widespread action to tackle pest rabbits and reduce their impacts. So thank you all for your continuing efforts.

Thanks also to Glenn McGrath, the RMAG and 150th Anniversary Steering Committee team, to the supporting Partners Santos, Elders Limited and Spatial Vision, the IACRC, to ABC Radio and to Jen Quealy, for all their efforts to make RabbitScan happen.

We are just about ready to officially map and evaluate the baseline data collected by you, for where rabbits are, in this year, which marks the 150th anniversary of wild pest rabbits being introduced in Australia.

For anyone who hasn't yet placed their survey online using the Google Map application, you will still be able to do that, but we are starting to analyse the data as it was in early October, as this year's baseline for rabbits and this campaign. The website application will remain active.
We would like to evaluate the program we've run this year, to find out from you if RabbitScan has been a useful tool and project from your perspective.  We would like your feedback to assess whether and how RabbitScan could continue.  We have attached a very simple and short 'Survey Monkey' to get your feedback. Simply click the link below to access the survey and send us your thoughts and responses. It is easy, with both multiple choice plus the ability to place some comments.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=ujllYbPFQZUYE23Mjv4bng_3d_3d