Thread: Rabbit Hunting

Originally Posted by Saitch

Sorry, Ranga. I just received a reply from my contact and they are relatively rabbit free at the moment. They're putting it down to an increase in wild dogs and foxes.

There's always a few rabbits out Nanango way, if you can get a contact out there.

There don't seem to be a lot of rabbits around any more: the worst infestation I've ever seen was at a property near Broadford about 30 years ago where three of us shot over 100 in a morning - and they reckon that you only see 10% of them since most are underground.

Anyone born after about 1950 has not seen a lot of rabbits. Before the introduction of the myxoma virus in 1950 rabbits were more prolific than anyone born since then can envisage.

My father was equivocal about this - as he said at the time "with rabbits everywhere, nobody needed to go hungry", and trapping could easily provide a small income with little expense.

By the 1980s developing resistance led to a resurgence of rabbits, and tests were undertaken with a calicivirus causing RHD in rabbits. This was accidentally (?) released into the wild in 1995, and supplemented by the deliberate introduction of a different strain in 2017 that works better in cooler and wetter conditions, but neither of these are as effective as the myxoma virus was in the 1950s. However, this has kept the rabbit numbers down a bit, and probably explains some of the problems finding rabbits to hunt.

Heading south on the Birdsville track north of Marree in 1979 in a series 3 long wheelbase (ex SA Police) the entire landscape was moving with thousands and thousands of rabbits with myxomatosis. You could not see the earth just rabbits. A very weird experience. You couldn’t avoid them and we flattened hundreds or maybe thousands of them. We drove through this moving landscape for quite sometime and then all of a sudden the country change and they were gone. Never seen anything like it anywhere before or since.

Cheers - Simon

Originally Posted by travelrover

Heading south on the Birdsville track north of Marree in 1979 in a series 3 long wheelbase (ex SA Police) the entire landscape was moving with thousands and thousands of rabbits with myxomatosis. You could not see the earth just rabbits. A very weird experience. You couldn’t avoid them and we flattened hundreds or maybe thousands of them. We drove through this moving landscape for quite sometime and then all of a sudden the country change and they were gone. Never seen anything like it anywhere before or since.

Cheers - Simon

Saw a similar but not as extensive 'moving landscape' in 1985 just before arriving at Coongie Lake where the whole sand ridge got up & moved. And there was even one albino amongst the fluffle/colony.

Originally Posted by Xtreme

Saw a similar but not as extensive 'moving landscape' in 1985 just before arriving at Coongie Lake where the whole sand ridge got up & moved. And there was even one albino amongst the fluffle/colony.

Absolutely amazing sight… it took a while to really understand what was happening at first! The brain didn’t want to believe what the eyes were seeing!

Oldest grandson has been working on a couple of properties in the central west NSW. Hasn't had his gun licence long but bought a .22 with scope a week or so ago and bagged 19 bunnies a few nights ago.
He has also bagged 3 feral cats & 7 of the 8 foxes that he's seen - not with the .22 though, used his .223 for the cats & wiley foxes.

Originally Posted by Xtreme

Oldest grandson has been working on a couple of properties in the central west NSW. Hasn't had his gun licence long but bought a .22 with scope a week or so ago and bagged 19 bunnies a few nights ago.
He has also bagged 3 feral cats & 7 of the 8 foxes that he's seen - not with the .22 though, used his .223 for the cats & wiley foxes.

Where was this?

Originally Posted by JDNSW

Where was this?

About 1 1/4 hrs SE of you John.