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Witness History: Australia's Rabbit Plague

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Australia's Rabbit Plague

27/11/2014 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, Australia's Rabbit Plague

The battle against billions of rabbits devastating the Australian countryside

In the 1950s Australia released the disease myxomatosis to kill off billions of rabbits which were destroying the countryside

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.

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

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