Why a 'whole-of-region' approach?

Let us consider the rabbit population right now. In the hundred years in which rabbits have been in this region, only once were they brought under control, and it was at the hands of the community releasing a magic weapon, the incredibly effective myxomytosis¹¹. That reduced the population of rabbits by about 90% annually (still about 50%). What is not known today is that rabbits have developed immunity to some of the modern self-spreading solutions¹² and we are at the bottom of the graph – the speed with which the population can rise again is terrifying but little understood. There is sometimes a silver lining in those scary clouds – the population, probably, is at its lowest right now so it is the perfect time to act.

Another aspect of the regional approach brings into focus that rabbits are all over the peninsula. Rabbits do not stay in farmers’ properties but they stray towards the best conditions available and sometimes that is on nice mown grass with close-by shelter under houses in peri-urban areas. Given a rabbit can go several hundred metres to forage, the peri-urban areas of the peninsula are of significant interest to the Rabbit Sweep project.

‘Whole of region’ means everybody and that means most of the people related to the area who rarely see themselves as having a role with respect to rabbits. So having a vast majority of the people related to the peninsula involved is critical. This is not a simple matter of telling everyone about rabbits – there needs to be something to engage their attention in a positive way. Perhaps one of the problems in the region is that it is divided into different areas – the agricultural areas, the rural-life-style areas, the peri-urban areas, the commercial areas. All the people involved live on the same peninsula – perhaps nicer names for these areas and a concerted effort to unite them is called for? How many peri-urban children associate with farmland, how many older citizens have time in nature listening to birds?

To engage a whole community, there needs to be a driving idea and it is suggested that might be health – a healthy country means a healthy community. This has been recognised by the Victorian Government in the Distinctive Areas and Landscapes (DAL)¹³, and is well documented by the work of Professor Lawrence St Leger, a local resident. But what does healthy country look like? The region is lucky to have a number of active First Nations people ready and able to assist in finding the best way to talk about our country being healthy. In addition, we can support the advice of the First Nations people with scientific findings.

Making sure that everyone thinks of the Bellarine as a place to live, a place to visit, a place to learn and a place to enjoy because of its abundance of biodiversity and biosecurity might, therefore, be the overall mission of the project.