The Toowoomba Regional Council is committed to managing invasive plants and animals to protect the local environment and community. Their biosecurity efforts focus on controlling pest species, educating landholders, and ensuring compliance with the Biosecurity Act 2014.​Toowoomba Region

Key Programs and Initiatives

• Pest Animal Control: The Council assists landowners in managing pest animals such as wild dogs, foxes, and feral pigs through a '1080 baiting service' conducted four times a year, with additional support provided as needed. ​Toowoomba Region

• Rabbit Management: Control methods include destroying warrens and burrows, removing potential shelters like log piles, and utilizing biological controls such as calicivirus and myxomatosis to reduce rabbit populations. ​Toowoomba Region

• Weed Control: The Council's Conservation and Pest Management team manages weeds along approximately 11,000 km of road network and conducts inspections across the 13,000 square km region. ​Have Your Say

• Biosecurity Surveillance Program: This program monitors invasive biosecurity matter, promotes best practice management, and provides information to enhance community awareness. ​Toowoomba Region+1Toowoomba Region+1

Landholder Responsibilities

Under local laws, land occupiers are required to keep their properties free from overgrown vegetation and accumulations of materials that could harbor pests. ​

Additional Resources

For more information on pest and weed management, including specific programs and resources, visit the Toowoomba Regional Council's Pests & Weeds (Biosecurity) page.​Toowoomba Region+1

European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are a serious invasive pest in Australia. Rabbits cause millions of dollars in damage to crops annually and, even at very low numbers, cause major impacts to the natural environment.

Once established in rural areas rabbits can cause extensive damage to crops, pastures and native vegetation and are difficult to control, requiring constant landholder action to manage. Rabbits construct burrows that enable them to survive a wide range of environmental conditions. They adapt to a wide range of food types and their ability to graze plants to ground level contributes to the enormous damage they cause. It is the legal responsibility of the land owner to control rabbits on their property, and penalties can be imposed for failing to do so under the Natural Resources Management Act 2004.

Domestic rabbits are common family pets but wild rabbits are quite different. Destroying your land and passing fleas on to your pets in the process, they can be a real nightmare. In the summer they’ll thoroughly enjoy your flower beds, weeds, grass, leaves, fruits, roots and shoots – perfect for a growing bunny’s appetite – and in the winter they’ll tuck into tree bark, twigs and bushes (they’re not all that fussy!).

This blog is a resource to find out how to prevent rabbits from eating plants and tips for repelling rabbits.

The DDMRB provides technical support and advice to landholders within its operational area, which encompasses eight local government area. The board employs 15 staff members who patrol and maintain the fence weekly, utilizing vehicles and, in some rugged terrains, conducting foot patrols. ​ddmrb.org.au+8ddmrb.org.au+8ddmrb.org.au+8

In Queensland, rabbits are classified as a restricted invasive animal and are prohibited as pets. The maximum penalty for keeping rabbits in the state is $66,725. Residents are encouraged to report rabbit sightings to help contain the population and protect the environment and agricultural lands.

The video titled "Menace Of The Rabbit (1948)" is an archival newsreel documenting Australia's struggle with a massive rabbit infestation in the mid-20th century.

It showcases the ecological and agricultural devastation caused by the unchecked rabbit population, which led to significant crop destruction and land degradation.

The footage highlights the extensive measures taken to control the outbreak, including fencing, poisoning, and trapping, underscoring the severity of the issue and the lengths to which authorities went to mitigate the damage.​

This article is from the Journal of the Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Series 4.

Attack the rabbit at home . . .

DESTROY WARRENS AND HARBOURAGE

Effective rabbit destruction often calls for a carefully worked out control programme consisting of poisoning, fumigating and warren and harbourage destruction. Possibly the most effective means of not only controlling rabbits but ultimately eradicating them from holdings is the destruction of warrens and harbourage.

Rabbits are Australia’s most serious pest herbivore and we are legally required to control them. Only one rabbit per hectare will stop the growth and regeneration of native plants.

This page is a resource by Geelong City Council on rabbit control in the Greater Geelong region.

Pest animal and weed control has been a necessity since South Australia was colonised by Europeans in 1836. While initially the colonists’ principal concern was to establish themselves and their communities – supplies of food and water were vital – the activities of settlement required the authorities to take action to prevent specific threats posed by diseases of animals and plants, unwanted animals and plants or the actions of people.

Rabbits are often considered the main pest species, animal or plant that Australia has had to confront. Governor Arthur Phillip came to Australia with five rabbits on the First Fleet in 1788 and 16 rabbits arrived on the vessel Governor Gawler in South Australia in 1840.

This page is a resource covering the introduction of rabbits.

This is the background document to the 2016 Threat abatement plan for competition and land degradation by rabbits.

The document aims to provide information on: rabbit characteristics, biology and distribution impacts on environmental, economic, social and cultural values, and current management practices and research findings.

The report is provided by the Australian Government - Department of the Environment & Energy.

After more than 150 years of battling this pest, Australia is now facing a fresh increase in rabbit numbers. Rabbits have been spotted in rising numbers in the Atherton tablelands in far north Queensland, and the Northern Rivers region in New South Wales.

The article covers a historical account of rabbits introduction and eradication in Australia by the ABC.

Rabbits are one of Australia's most destructive pest animals. They have a significant negative and costly impact on agriculture through overgrazing and they endanger many threatened plant species and ecological communities. NSW Environment and Heritage work to reduce their impact on native plants, animals and the environment.

This page is a resource provided by NSW Environment and Heritage.

The initial release of the myxoma virus led to a dramatic reduction of Australia’s rabbit population. Within two years of the virus’s release in 1950 Australia’s wool and meat production recovered from the rabbit onslaught to the tune of $68 million.

As predicted by CSIRO’s Francis Ratcliffe and ANU’s Frank Fenner, the impact of myxomatosis gradually declined over time as both the myxoma virus and the rabbit population changed genetically.

This page is a resource covering the history and research of Myxomatosis to control rabbits.

8 natural ways to protect your garden. Seeing a rabbit hop through a garden, nibbling on crops is an adorable sight…unless that garden is your garden and that carrot is one you planted. Unfortunately for gardeners, rabbits happen to like lots of the same veggies we do—and even some of our non-edible plants. Here are some humane, non-toxic ways to keep rabbits away from plants in your garden.

This page is a resource by Garden Design on natural methods to control and deter rabbits.

In Victoria, feral or wild populations of European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus) are declared as established pest animals under the Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994 (CALP Act)Under the CALP Act all landowners have a responsibility to take all reasonable steps to prevent the spread of – and as far as possible eradicate – established pest animals from their land.

Good planning is essential for maximising the effectiveness of your rabbit control program, while minimising the impact on other animals. Consider rabbit density, distribution and habitat, as this will determine what actions are appropriate.

This page is a resource by Agriculture Victoria

This long-eared animal has a ravenous appetite for every kind of fresh vegetation, be it annual plants, biennials, perennials, berries, or woody plants. Since you do not want these voracious herbivores destroying your yard, you need a lasting solution to get rid of these pests.

This blog is a resource covering different and effective ways of how to get rid of rabbits from your yard.

Rabbits can be difficult to control even when they are in small numbers, and there are very few available methods that are inherently humane. However, it is possible to improve the humaneness of a control program by ensuring that it is carried out at the most appropriate time and in accordance with best practice. 

This article provides some basic advice on how to reduce the impacts of rabbits in a semi-rural setting and outlines the most humane control methods available for small-scale rabbit control.

If rabbits have demolished your ornamental or garden plants, stay tuned. We have everything you will want to know about controlling rabbits - including some more unique ways you can get rid of rabbits — and they work!

This blog is a resource on everything you want to know on how to identify and get rid of rabbits from your garden.

Got rabbits? These small mammals can do a number on young plants, so control and prevention is paramount. Aside from fencing, there are many old-time remedies and other solutions that will keep them out of the garden patch! Plus, see a list of plants that rabbits tend to ignore. 

This blog is a resource for information on how to identify and control the rabbit population in your yard.

Although rabbits can be a real pest, it isn’t always necessary to start killing them. Prevention techniques are a far better long-term solution. Killing them is very hard work, and risky! Such an approach will often lead to a long running fight to try and control and eliminate a population of rabbits.

This blog is a resource discusses pros and cons in methods for controlling rabbits including traps, shooting, poisons and natural alternatives.

Although entirely eliminating a rabbit population from your property may not be possible. There are a number of things you can do to reduce their numbers through altering the habitat, barriers and repellents to keeping them out of your garden as well as getting rid of rabbits in other ways.

This page discusses how to deter rabbits with 3 strategic methods.