Sketch Map Shewing Rabbit Board District…

Rare map showing the extent of the existing and proposed rabbit proof fencing in Queensland to 1899.

At right is a key with explanation for lines marked. 

The rabbit  was introduced to Australia with the arrival of the first fleet but it was the release of twenty four rabbits by Thomas Austin in 1859 that caused the massive explosion in their population.

Rabbits were first reported in south-western Queensland in the 1880s. Their spread was assisted by humans as much as by natural migration. Queensland reacted to the advancing wave of rabbits by introducing the Rabbit Nuisance Bill of 1878 and Act in 1880. Unfortunately tenders for the construction of a rabbit-proof border fence were not passed until 1886, by which time rabbits were scattered from Wompah in the west to Mungindi in the east.

To prevent the further spread and devastation of rabbits, a rabbit proof fence started construction in 1886 at a point 25.6 km west of the Warrego River. By 1891, the fence had reached within a few kilometres of Haddon Corner in the far north-east of South Australia and was later extended east to Mungindi, completed in 1903. Between 1892 and 1905, Queensland was subdivided into nine separate Rabbit Board Districts. Each district erected netted barrier fences to keep the rabbit out.

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID3582972
State Library of NSW: Call Numbers Z/M3 840/1907/1 (note 1907 edition)