An article from the West Australian  Perth 12^th January 1926

 In view of the recent controversy with regard to identity of the person who first introduced rabbits to Australia, an article contributed to the December number of the local “Journal of Agriculture” by Chief Inspector of Rabbits (Mr. J Craig) makes interesting reading. Mr. Craig says that from early records of Australia, it is apparent that rabbits accompanied the expedition that landed at Port Jackson on January 26^th 1788. A Return issued by Governor Phillip on May 1^st of that year and printed in the Historical Records of New South Wales, shows that the live stock on the settlement included rabbits. Whether they were white or grey in not stated but it is believed that they were the former.

Mr. Craig is not inclined to the view that these rabbits were the origin of our present trouble.

 He mentions that navigators of the time were believed to have brought out a number of rabbits from England and to have released them on the islands, possibly for the purpose of providing food. He then says “according to press reports the Black Ball clipper “Lightning” arrived in Hobsons Bay on December 25^th 1859, have on board 4 hares, 66 partridges and 24 wild rabbits, consigned to Mr Thomas Austin of Barwon Park”. These rabbits were the first to become acclimatized on the mainland, survived the attacks of their natural enemies and spread into the adjoining country and beyond.

 He goes on to tell how once they had become established; neighbouring land owners sort pairs as a great favour with which to stock their estates. In

some instances game keepers were kept to kill native cats to protect the rabbits and one landowner, who paid one pound each for a dozen rabbits, estimated later that they had cost him one thousand pounds a head.  About 1860 he says; an attempt was made to farm rabbits and to dispose of their carcasses for consumption. One man bred thousands of rabbits inside a paling fence, which eventually was burned down, allowing the rabbits to escape to the surrounding country and spread over the whole district. “it cannot, of course”, says Mr. Craig, “be said with absolute certainty that the couple of dozen wild rabbits introduced by the late Mr. Austin were those only of their kind that had ever been bought to Victoria but no authentic record of any other importations appear to exist and everything points to Barwon Park rabbits having been the real originators of what some became known as the rabbit pest”.

The remainder of the article deals with the rapid spreading of bunnies through the continent until he bumped up against the Indian Ocean on our shores here in Western Australia, and of how one by one the various State Governments alarmed by the proportions to which the pest had grown began to take active measures towards its suppression.