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Early Australian rabbit-proof fences: paling, slab and stub fences, modified dry stone walls, and wire netting
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 June 2021
Abstract
Fences were critical in the fight against rabbits in colonial Australia. Initially, domestic rabbits were farmed in pens or paddocks fenced with paling fences or walls. Wild-caught rabbits imported from England escaped and became serious pests from the 1850s. As their status changed from protected private property to a major pest, the functions of fences changed to fencing rabbits out. Legislation requiring or specifying rabbit-proof fences lagged several years behind recognition of rabbits as a problem. Most log and brush fences in infested districts were burnt to destroy rabbit harbour. Dry stone walls were modified in many ways; paling, slab, picket and stub fences were all tried, but were unsuccessful, and by 1886 netting was standard. Using examples from the rich agricultural Western District and the considerably poorer Mallee Region of Victoria, this article describes the many forms of rabbit fences used between the 1850s and the mid-1880s. All of the experimentation with different structures was by individual landholders, with colonial governments conspicuous by their lack of involvement until they erected rabbit-proof barrier fences.
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- © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
References
Notes
1 C. W. Holland, ‘Rabbits and their introduction into Australia’, Queensland Naturalist, 4:1 (1923), 7–19 <https://archive.org/details/queenslandnaturivquee/> [all URLs accessed and verified 8th October 2020]; Eric C. Rolls, They All Ran Wild: The Animals and Plants that Plague Australia (Sydney, 1984), pp. 6–27; Bruce Munday, Those Wild Rabbits: How they Shaped Rural Australia (Mile End, 2017), pp. 6–12.
2 ‘De La Perouse’, Colonial Times and Tasmanian Advertiser (Hobart), Friday 11th May 1827, p. 4 [All newspaper sources are available from the Trove Portal of the National Library of Australia] <https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/result?q =]>; E. Stodart and I. Parer, ‘Colonisation of Australia by the Rabbit Oryctolagus cuniculus (L.)’, CSIRO Division of Wildlife and Ecology Project Report No. 6 (Canberra, 1988), p. 13.
3 John Sheail, ‘Rabbits and agriculture in post-medieval England’, Journal of Historical Geography, 4:4 (1978), 343–55. For illustrations and descriptions of early Australian fences, see John Pickard, Illustrated Glossary of Australian Rural Fence Terms (Sydney, 2009) <http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/heritagebranch/heritage/IllustratedglossaryofAustralianruralfenceterms2009.pdf>.
4 ‘Our Correspondent’, ‘Parramatta: Court of Requests’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Friday 3rd September 1858, p. 8.
5 Holland, ‘Rabbits’, pp. 13–14.
6 [‘Game on Barwon Park’], The Argus (Melbourne), Thursday 5th January 1865, p. 5.
7 [‘Cats on Barwon Park’], Wallaroo Times and Mining Journal (Port Wallaroo), Saturday 27th June 1868, p. 6.
8 Victoria Mallee Select Committee, Report from the Select Committee upon the Settlement of the Mallee Country (Melbourne, 1891), p. 135, Question 3,727.
9 James Matthams, The Rabbit Pest in Australia: With Chapters on Foxes, Dingoes, Wombats, the Fences Act of Victoria and Noxious Weeds (Melbourne, 1921); Rolls, They All Ran Wild, pp. 155–64.
10 John Pickard, ‘Rabbit-proof dry stone walls in the Western District of Victoria’, Australasian Historical Archaeology, 37 (2019), 74–80; Corangamite Dry Stone Walls Conservation Project, ‘If These Walls Could Talk’, Report of the Corangamite Dry Stone Walls Conservation Project (Terang, 1995); Munday, Wild Rabbits, pp. 73–5. Some of the early fences and the advantages of wire netting are described by Jack Thompson and John Perkins, ‘The evolving technology of vermin control in colonial Australia’, Prometheus, 5 (1987), 111–23.
11 Tom Williamson, Rabbits, Warrens & Archaeology (Cheltenham, 2007), p. 17.
12 Ibid., p. 68.
13 All legislation is available on AustLii <http://www.austlii.edu.au/databases.html#cth>; Rolls, They All Ran Wild, pp. 137–48.
14 The spelling ‘harbor’ was used in Victoria, and ‘harbour’ in Tasmania and NSW. The rabbits probably didn’t care one way or the other.
15 ‘Vermin’ included ‘kangaroos wallabies and other marsupials dingoes or native dogs run wild dogs at large rabbits and any other animal’ declared to be vermin (Mallee Pastoral Leases Act 1883 (Vic), section 2).
16 Holland, ‘Rabbits’, p. 15.
17 John Pickard, ‘Wire fences in colonial Australia: technology transfer and adaptation 1842–1900’, Rural History, 21:1 (2010), 27–58; John Pickard, ‘Fencing South Australian farms from 1836 to 1849’, Journal of Australian Colonial History, 21 (2019), 85–102.
18 ‘Saltbush’, ‘The Rabbit Question’, Mercury (Hobart), Friday 18th June 1886, p. 4.
19 John Pickard, ‘Lines across the Landscape: History, Impact and Heritage of Australian Rural Fences (PhD thesis, Macquarie University, 2010), pp. 102–09, 282–91 <http://hdl.handle.net/1959.14/1269487>.
20 ‘A Landowner’, ‘The Rabbit Plague’, Launceston Examiner (Launceston), Tuesday 2nd May 1882, p. 3.
21 ‘The Rabbit Plague’, The Mercury (Hobart), Friday 21st May 1886, p. 3.
22 ‘An Inhabitant’, [Paling Fences. Letter to the Editor], Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney), Sunday 3rd July 1803, p. 2.
23 ‘A Most Useful New Industry’, Geelong Advertiser (Geelong), Thursday 16th October 1862, p. 3.
24 Albrecht Feez, [‘Speech during Second Reading of the Rabbit Bill, Thursday 5th August 1880’], Queensland Parliamentary Debates, 32 (1880), 309.
25 ‘A Correspondent’, ‘Rabbits in the Camperdown District’, The Argus (Melbourne), Friday 14th March 1884, p. 10.
26 ‘District News: Cobden’, Camperdown Chronicle (Camperdown), Saturday 1st October 1881, p. 3.
27 Alfred William Burbury, Chronicles of the Burbury Family in Tasmania and England with Memories of Methods, Conditions and Individuals in the Early Days of the Midlands (1939), ch. 2 <http://www.vision.net.au/˜dburbury/burbury/index.html?transcrp/chronicl.html&2>; ‘Bruni’, ‘Rabbit Pest’, p. 26.
28 Rae Pennycuick, Keeping Rabbits Out: Darling Downs-Moreton Rabbit Board: A History of the Darling Downs Rabbit Board 1893–1964, the Moreton Rabbit Board 1905–1964 and the Darling Downs-Moreton Rabbit Board 1964–1994 (Warwick, 1995), pp. 36, 40, 190.
29 James Brown, The Forester: A Practical Treatise on the Planting, Rearing, and General Management of Forest Trees, with an Improved Process for Transplantation of Trees of Large Size, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1851), p. 81
<https://archive.org/download/foresterapracti02browgoog/foresterapracti02browgoog.pdf>.
30 W. G. Manifold, The Wished-for-Land: The Migration and Settlement of the Manifolds of Western Victoria (Newtown, 1984), p. 185.
31 Alice M. Cerutty, Tyntyndyer: A Pioneering Homestead and its Families (Kilmore, 1977), pp. 70–1.
32 Edward H. Lascelles, ‘Rabbit Destruction’, The Argus (Melbourne), Wednesday 21st January 1885, p. 9.
33 ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria IV’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Wednesday 18th November 1885, p. 9. The ‘pine’ used for stubs was Slender Cypress Pine (Callitris gracilis), a tree up to twenty metres tall with termite-resistant wood.
34 Hilton, Mallee Pioneers, p. 19.
35 Lascelles, ‘Rabbit Destruction’, p. 9 said the netting on the Lake Corrong fence was 16-gauge; Cerutty, Tyntyndyer, pp. 70–1; Agnes Hilton, The Mallee Pioneers of Hopetoun (Melbourne, 1982), p. 19; ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria IV’, p. 9. Wire netting is conventionally described as width x mesh x gauge of wire, all without units. Thus 42 x 1⅝ x 16 netting is 42 inches wide, mesh of 1⅝ inches, made of 16-gauge wire.
36 Mallee Amending Act 1885 (Vic), section 2(1).
37 Robert Hastings, ‘Rabbit Destruction’, The Argus (Melbourne), Wednesday 16th September 1885, p. 6.
38 ‘Our Own Correspondent’, ‘Our Agricultural Letter’, Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette (Swan Hill), Tuesday 16th June 1885, p. 3.
39 ‘Our Own Correspondent’, ‘Around Boonah’, Leader (Melbourne), Saturday 24th December 1887, p. 13.
40 Williamson, Rabbits, pp. 68–9, 99, 113.
41 E. Dennison, ‘Woodhall rabbit warren, Carperby’, Yorkshire Archaeological Society Occasional Paper, 2 (2004), 137–44; Pickard, ‘Rabbit-proof dry stone walls’.
42 ‘Town Talk’, Geelong Advertiser (Geelong), Monday 28th March 1881, p. 2.
43 Pickard, ‘Rabbit-proof dry stone walls’.
44 Corangamite Dry Stone Walls Conservation Project, ‘If These Walls Could Talk’.
45 Planning Collaborative (Vic) Pty Ltd, Melton Dry Stone Walls Study, Volume 1: The Report (Melton, 2011) <http://www.melton.vic.gov.au/files/assets/public/services/building-planning-amp-transport/strategic-planning/studies-strategies-guidelines/dry-stone-wall-study/dsw_study_volume_1.pdf>; Planning Collaborative (Vic) Pty Ltd, Melton Dry Stone Walls Study, Volume 2: Citations (Melton, 2011) <http://www.melton.vic.gov.au/files/assets/public/services/building-planning-amp-transport/strategic-planning/studies-strategies-guidelines/dry-stone-wall-study/dsw_study_volume_2.pdf>; G. Vines, Built to Last: An Historical and Archaeological Survey of Dry stone Walls in Melbourne’s Western Region (Melbourne, 1990).
46 Mr Raynham, ‘Cheap and Effective Fence [Advertisement]’, London Daily News (London), Tuesday 21st July 1846, p. 1.
47 P. Langwill & Co., ‘Galvanized Iron Wire and Wire Netting [Advertisement]’, The Argus (Melbourne), Wednesday 28th September 1853, p. 8.
48 ‘Wire’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Friday 24th November 1854, p. 8.
49 ‘The Rabbit Nuisance’, Tasmanian Times (Hobart), Wednesday 16th November 1870, p. 2. Although there were a few early references to moving netting, the practice seems to have died very early, and netting fences remained permanent fixtures with the lower six inches buried.
50 ‘Lord Elcho on Rabbits’, South Australian Register (Adelaide), Saturday 31st March 1877, p. 5.
51 John Cumming (Terrinallum): Davy, ‘Rabbit-Proof Fencing’, p. 606; Myring boundary: [Myring], ‘Mr. Myring’s Report’, p. 4. Most landholders would pull several wires from Cummings’ fence for reuse elsewhere.
52 ‘The Rabbit Nuisance’, South Australian Register (Adelaide), Saturday 24th November 1877, p. 5.
53 E. Eastway & Sons, ‘Galvanized Wire Netting [Advertisement]’, Illustrated Sydney News (Sydney), Thursday 15th April 1869, p. 179.
54 Eastway Brothers, ‘Fire Guards for the Nursery, Bed Room, Parlour and Drawing-Room [Advertisement]’, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), Saturday 4th June 1870, p. 2.
55 Andrea Gaynor, Harvest of the Suburbs: An Environmental History of Growing Food in Australian Cities (Crawley, 2006).
56 ‘[Rabbit Damage in Victoria]’, Adelaide Observer (Adelaide), Saturday 15th August 1874, p. 9.
57 Cozens and Harvey, ‘The Rabbit Pest [Advertisement]’, Hamilton Spectator (Hamilton), Saturday 10th February 1883, p. 4.
58 C. B. Schedvin, ‘Rabbits and industrial development: Lysaght Brothers & Co. Pty Ltd, 1884 to 1929’, Australian Economic History Review, 10 (1970), 27–55.
59 Humphry Davy, ‘Rabbit-Proof Fencing, Victoria (Report on, by Mr. Humphry Davy)’, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland (1885), vol. 3, p. 606.
60 Ibid.
61 ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria I’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Wednesday 11th November 1885, p. 13.
62 Ibid.
63 [Thomas Hewitt Myring], ‘Mr. Myring’s Report on Rabbit-Proof Fencing’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Monday 8th February 1886, p. 4.
64 Ibid.
65 ‘Wire-Netting Fences and the Mallee Amending Act 1885, No. I’, Australasian (Melbourne), Saturday 24th April 1886, p. 10; ‘Wire-Netting Fences and the Mallee Amending Act 1885, No. II’, Australasian (Melbourne), Saturday 1st May 1886, p. 10; ‘Wire-Netting Fences, No. III, Queensland and New South Wales’, Australasian (Melbourne), Saturday 8th May 1886 p. 10; ‘Wire-Netting Fences, IV’, Australasian (Melbourne), Saturday 22nd May 1886, p. 11.
66 ‘The Rabbit Pest’, Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser (Sydney), Saturday 26th November 1887, p. 1116.
67 Ibid.
68 Ibid.
69 ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria II’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Thursday 12th November 1885, p. 7.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria III’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Tuesday 17th November 1885, p. 5.
73 ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria IV’, p. 9.
74 Ibid.
75 Ibid.
76 Ibid.
77 Ibid.
78 Ibid.
79 ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria VI’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Monday 23rd November 1885, p. 7.
80 ‘Our Special Correspondent’, ‘Rabbit Destruction in Victoria V’, Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney), Friday 20th November 1885, p. 11.
81 Rabbit fronts from Stodart and Parer, Colonisation of Australia, Figure 2.
82 Stephen Dando-Collins, Pasteur’s Gambit: Louis Pasteur, the Australasian Rabbit Plague and a Ten Million Dollar Prize (North Sydney, 2008), pp. 93–110; John Pickard, ‘Lines across the Landscape, pp. 222–57.
83 Pennycuick, Keeping Rabbits Out, p. 47.
84 Pickard, ‘Lines across the Landscape’, pp. 165–201; Tom L. McKnight, ‘Barrier fencing for vermin control in Australia’, Geographical Review, 59:3 (1969), 330–47.
85 John Pickard, ‘The Victorian Mallee Fence: a forgotten and mis-understood relic of settling the Mallee Region of Victoria’, Victorian Historical Journal, 90:1 (2019), 30–56.
86 Pickard, ‘Lines across the Landscape’, pp. 230–7. The barrier was completed to near Corowa in 1892, by which time rabbits were well to the east beyond the barrier.
87 R. J. Murchison, The Rabbit Plague in Australia and a Scheme for its Suppression (Melbourne, 1887), p. 11 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52782303>.
88 McKnight, ‘Barrier fencing’.
89 Rolls, They All Ran Wild, pp. 90–136.
90 ‘Wool-trade celebrities: Mr. E. H. Lascelles’, The Pastoralists’ Review, 16 (15th March 1906), pp. 17–18.
91 Pickard, ‘Lines across the Landscape’, pp. 227–49.