OVERVIEW

The introduction of a few rabbits can do little harm and might provide a touch of home, as well as a little hunting"  

Thomas Austin, on releasing 24 rabbits on to his farm in Victoria in 1859.

By 1894 rabbits were in plague proportions across the majority of the mainland. To control further vermin spread into the pastural land of Western Australia, a Royal Commission appointed Alfred Canning to survey the route for a barrier fence.

Richard Anketell's team completed construction of this in 1907. The Rabbit Proof Fence as it is now known stretched from Starvation Bay on the southern coast of WA to Cape Keraudren in the far north.

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