AusVarmint

Was a tough night on the trap line that night.
Found this photo on the wall of the local library, thought some of you mob would be interested.

bring back the good old days.

id hate to be the only skinner that day

Flat stacked in the bed of the truck, no refrigerated transport in those days, billions of rabbits transported from western NSW and other states to the capital cities where the big processing facilities were located, thousands of blokes employed both casual and full time trapping, shooting, transporting, skinning, packing etc, dunno how many billions of dollars the industry generated, but shes all gorn now, because of some, in my opinion, ill perceived damage to agriculture.

LoneRider wrote:id hate to be the only skinner that day

exactly!

Camel wrote:Flat stacked in the bed of the truck, no refrigerated transport in those days, billions of rabbits transported from western NSW and other states to the capital cities where the big processing facilities were located, thousands of blokes employed both casual and full time trapping, shooting, transporting, skinning, packing etc, dunno how many billions of dollars the industry generated, but shes all gorn now, because of some, in my opinion, ill perceived damage to agriculture.

without wanting to spoil a friendship, your opinion is rather biased and I believe, incorrect

well here on the coast on all the farms I shoot the humble rabbit does no more damage to a farm than the wombat and bulls

and are piss easy to keep the numbers down with shooting .

trevort wrote:

Camel wrote:Flat stacked in the bed of the truck, no refrigerated transport in those days, billions of rabbits transported from western NSW and other states to the capital cities where the big processing facilities were located, thousands of blokes employed both casual and full time trapping, shooting, transporting, skinning, packing etc, dunno how many billions of dollars the industry generated, but shes all gorn now, because of some, in my opinion, ill perceived damage to agriculture.

without wanting to spoil a friendship, your opinion is rather biased and I believe, incorrect

Trev, our friendship is still safe, as long as you keep paying me the retainer.

As to being incorrect, it depends on which side of the fence you are on, and as you know, when something goes political, all common sense goes out the window. I will state, that there was no need for this second calisi virus to be released, most of the owners of the properties that I shot commercially on were not in the lease worried about rabbits, yeah that included the old fellas who had gone thru the rabbit plagues in the 40's/50's after the war, they rather saw them as another means of controlling the woody weeds that are costing them more in lost production that rabbit numbers did.
Tinfoil had time, you only have to look at who and which organisations were pushing for the introduction of C5 virus, the media made a big fuss as usual about nothing, and CSIRO wanted to show how smart they are. Vested interests

Camel wrote:

trevort wrote:

Camel wrote:Flat stacked in the bed of the truck, no refrigerated transport in those days, billions of rabbits transported from western NSW and other states to the capital cities where the big processing facilities were located, thousands of blokes employed both casual and full time trapping, shooting, transporting, skinning, packing etc, dunno how many billions of dollars the industry generated, but shes all gorn now, because of some, in my opinion, ill perceived damage to agriculture.

without wanting to spoil a friendship, your opinion is rather biased and I believe, incorrect

Trev, our friendship is still safe, as long as you keep paying me the retainer.

As to being incorrect, it depends on which side of the fence you are on, and as you know, when something goes political, all common sense goes out the window. I will state, that there was no need for this second calisi virus to be released, most of the owners of the properties that I shot commercially on were not in the lease worried about rabbits, yeah that included the old fellas who had gone thru the rabbit plagues in the 40's/50's after the war, they rather saw them as another means of controlling the woody weeds that are costing them more in lost production that rabbit numbers did.
Tinfoil had time, you only have to look at who and which organisations were pushing for the introduction of C5 virus, the media made a big fuss as usual about nothing, and CSIRO wanted to show how smart they are. Vested interests

that and just watch and see what lengths fox's go to to get a feed when you take the rabbit out of the equation

I'll raise you
Marcus

When you look at those pictures what a waste of an industry it is with fur being such a frowned upon industry and plenty of good lean meat right there!!

We have all these textiles from f^&kn petro chemicals and plastics but good old natural fur is a no no!!

Anyway love pics like these. Our grandfather would ride (pushbike) down rundle street in Adelaide with the 12g and a sack of rabbits over his shoulders, helped the family out with food and money.

CSIRO are a joke and whinge about funding etc but I know from personal sources how they spend their OUR money!

Family tell stories of scooping the critters up while hanging off the trucks and taking them back to large pens to process. From that to none.

yep...
its a waste

Fancy a bit of slow cooked rabbit stew anyone??! 'In 1929 the rabbit industry was reported to be the largest employer of labour in Australia.
Over 20 billion rabbits were trapped or poisoned in south-east Australia for commercial purposes. Each rabbit carcase or skin was worth money.
Carcase prices varied from 3d a pair in the 1890s to 24d a pair in the early 1950s, while skins were worth between 1.5d and 10d a pound in the 1890s and reached 249d a pound in 1946.
Thousands of rabbiters in New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and southern Queensland earned in a week up to ten times the rates of pay earned by building and metal industry tradesmen, and earnings remained high until 1970.
Trappers were independent suppliers who chose when to work, how long to work, what to work for, skins or carcases, or a mixture of both, and who to sell to.
Unlike other rural workers, who had to travel continuously in search of seasonal or intermittent work, rabbiters were able to reside in one location all year.
The rabbit industry revolutionised work practices in rural areas and stimulated local businesses like no other industry. Wool remained the nation’s major export earner but income from wool ended up in relatively few hands, while the rabbit industry provided cash money on a daily basis to thousands of trappers and workers.
This money was spent locally in hundreds of rural businesses, used to buy cars, homes and farms, or saved.
Unlike other rural industries, the rabbit industry prospered during war, depression and drought' Source:The Rabbit Industry in South-East Australia, 1870-1970. — with Roger Douglas

No Andy-roo, that must be incorrect, just ask Trevort.

Talk about rose tinted spectacles,the industry thrived through the war,no it didn't,the bloody rabbits did though,due to manpower shortages the country was overrun,my father spent the best part of his working life fighting rabbits,it kept him poor.

Flash Gordon wrote:Talk about rose tinted spectacles,the industry thrived through the war,no it didn't,the bloody rabbits did though,due to manpower shortages the country was overrun,my father spent the best part of his working life fighting rabbits,it kept him poor.

Yeah, something needed doing after the war and during the 50's, that's where myxo played its part, it really did save a lot of country and farmers from devastation, however in later years since the 80's numbers were no where near what they were earlier on.
My main beef I suppose is the release of new virus into our environment that is now occurring, it is just another quick political fix to something that really was already under control, and the waste of a very good profitable industry that returned benefits all round.