Skip to main content

Rabbit Sweep strategy - 2025

 Preparation to work with land managers

  1. Relevant staff:
                           Project Lead/facilitator
                           Facilitator and
                           Casual, employed and volunteer consultant experts 
  1. Purchase a phone and promote Rabbit Sweep phone number and email address.
  2. Document in easy-to-use format, connection to volunteers, contractors, other clusters of land holders, etc.
  3. Populate catalogue with relevant information from wherever (working with CISS and RFA to include resource publishers).

Process for working with land managers

  1. "Do you have a rabbit problem?" Receive call to Rabbit Sweep on xxx xxx xxx or email to  for help.
  2. A facilitator responds to contact and offers to help with developing a plan for action and contacting neighbours (if they are not already involved) to see if they might engage with the process. If discussions are successful, Rabbit Sweep registers a new cluster.
  3. Once neighbours are alerted, a facilitator arranges site visit - an expert and a facilitator - and afterwards submits site report. 
  4. Given the results of the site visit and advice, the facilitator may help cluster prepare customised proposal for action for neighbourhood (show actions, how to do it, who can help, what it might cost, what can be expected, etc.). Rabbit Sweep will work on planning activity to empower land managers to easily document what they agree among themselves to do. 
  5. Land managers choose what help they want and a facilitator will help connect them with the relevant people and organise action. 
  6. A facilitator may seek other clusters' members to participate to learn from each other.
  7. Later, a facilitator regularly contacts clusters to encourage and support their rabbit control activities.
  8. A facilitator collects responses to proforma of facets of the exercise and records it and evaluates and modifies reporting 'tick-sheets', for future use.
  9. A facilitator will record action-location using modified FeralScan.
  10. Rabbit Sweep team will ealuate and refine activities from social, agricultural and economic perspectives.

Note: ethical and welfare considerations will be among the environmental, social and economic considerations along with an emphasis on biosecurity.

2025 Goals

The plan is to engage in the following way:

  • have many small events helping neighbours form clusters with the hub-and-spokes and catalogue to help them find resources;
  • work on in-place, community-led mini-projects being developed to distribute expertise and participation in rabbit control;
  • identify opportunities to inject managerial and best practice efficiency into on-ground work;
  • link up regularly with clusters, BLG and BCN members, and partners to spread the word by reference;
  • continue with what have to date formed productive partnerships, and
  • engage in projects shared across partners and for others, reinforcing the networking of entities and participants in rabbit control Australia-wide.

To result in:

  • higher social value for pest management on the Bellarine;
  • greater awareness and use of efficient and better practices for rabbit control;
  • more locally-distributed community-led rabbit-specific activity;
  • participants with longer-term commitment to rabbit control;
  • stronger network connections between relevant rabbit management agencies, public and private, and
  • innovation in community of communities management (ie local clusters in clear relationship with BLG, BCN, VRAN, etc.).

Outcomes:

  • communications - response to phone call/email
  • publications - regular newsletter
  • meetings - neighbours in local cluster areas, participation in other clusters events to distribute experience
  • advertising - working with CoGG to publicise events through mailouts to land managers
  • assessment - collection and evaluation of data from clusters by Facilitator
  • field days - willingness to participate  - eg for planned field day October 25, 2025 to be held by BLG RAG
  • mapping - a facilitator will map activity at level of clusters, using FeralScan technology
  • online event - registered Rabbit Sweepers will be notified of relevant online events for their participation
  • plan/strategy - the initial planning for the project will be tested and improved aiming for useful documentation to simplify the process for the future
  • presentation - the Rabbit Sweepers will respond to requests for presentation and seek them from member organisations on the Bellarine
  • research - the Rabbit Sweepers have undertaken research to date and will continue to help others share research results and contrbute their own
  • seminar/conference/expo - it is anticipated that there will be events to which the Rabbit Sweepers will be most willing to contribute presentations
  • training - clusters will be encouraged to offer training to each other, Rabbit Sweepers will happily contribute to others' training events 
  • video/audio production - short simple videos will be gathered to publish 'tips and tricks' from rabbit management experts 
  • video - Rabbit Sweep will work with partners Rabbit Free Australia and the Darling Downs Moreton Rabbit Board to provide 30 minutes (video presentations for publication - the first on developing a quantitative value for rabbit control activities and the second on peri-urban biosecurity