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Australia's Rabbit Plague

Rabbits infested huge areas of the Australian countryside in the 1940s and 1950s until farmers and the government began to fight them with every weapon they had.

For decades, Australia's countryside was ravaged by billions of rabbits. So in the 1950s, the government released the disease myxomatosis to kill off the rabbit plague. We hear from farmer, Bill McDonald, who remembers Australia's battle against the bunnies. (This programme is a re-broadcast).

(Photo: Rabbits around a waterhole at the myxomatosis trial enclosure on Wardang Island in 1938. Credit: National Archives of Australia)

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9 minutes

Last on

Wed 20 Sep 2017 07:50GMT

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  • Wed 20 Sep 2017 07:50GMT

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