By Tyler Wright
Rabbit control will be the topic of conversation at Emerald’s Hills Hub on Wednesday 22 June.
A meeting has been organised with help from the Emerald Village Association and member of the Emerald Feral Rabbit Facebook group Martin Mebalds, to help educate the community on how best to manage feral rabbits in the locality.
“There’s been discussion in the past about how to go about controlling rabbits, there’s been people volunteering, hunting rabbits – I thought what we needed was some experts to come and talk to the community to tell us the best approaches,” Martin said.
Annie Lamb, Leading Officer of Biosecurity and Agricultural Services at Agriculture Victoria, will be coming out to discuss the impact feral rabbits have on the environment; including overgrazing native pastures, a loss of plant biodiversity and the spreading of disease.
“The issue for Emerald and surrounding areas is that the usual techniques of fumigation and burrow ripping…they’re impractical, and they may have impacts on our environment,” Martin said.
“For instance; baiting rabbits with poison could mean we might get wombats taking bait…maybe predatory birds like eagles [will] feed on poisoned rabbits and therefore succumb to the poison themselves…there could be pets that are affected by the poisons,” he said.
Martin said rabbits are common in the Hills locality, namely in Emerald Reserve.
“I’ve heard of one person who’s had rabbits burrow under the house and to the internet cables; they can be quite a nuisance in their own right. I’ve had rabbits destroy my vegetable garden, so I’ve had to put up barriers to protect the veggies,” he said.
“We’ve been seeing that trend increase over the years.”
Martin said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if around 40 people attended Wednesday’s meeting, starting at 7:30pm.
“I’ve put out invitations in the [Emerald Village Association’s] weekly newsletter, and distributed invitations via their email to [their] members – and there’s 114 in that group,” the local said.
“There’s no point in just controlling rabbits on your own property, because they’re going to come and in and fill a void if there’s no rabbits on your property, but the next property has an abundance of rabbits…
“You really need an area-wide control program or effort.”
The Hills Hub is located on 402 Belgrave-Gembrook Rd, Emerald VIC 3782.
