Linda, Joan, Lori, Dianne and other rabbit fans, Thank you Linda for providing info about the route taken by the mountaineering rabbit hordes in their trek to the Maffra - Stratford district. And Lori, I am very interested in the book you mentioned. I stated previously that my uncles had told me that rabbits first arrived in the Thorpdale/Narracan district in 1914. However, I have now seen a report that they arrived in some parts of West Gippsland much earlier. John Adams ("So Tall the Trees", p. 136) states: "In 1896 they were seen around Drouin. In 1898 some were seen in the Haunted Hills, then in March 1901, a rabbit was seen near Hill End ... By 1910 the rabbits were rather common in the hill country from Shady Creek to Moondarra ... Then rabbits began to appear in the Allambee area, and were soon overrunning the Narracan Hills ... Trappers moved in and began to develop a new industry with crates of rabbits sent off from Thorpdale for processing ... " I can remember rabbits being "thick on the ground" in the Thorpdale district in the 1920s. Their numbers were controlled to some extent by the use of either traps or ferrets. As a schoolboy I used to make good pocket money by selling carcasses to the "rabbit man". Van loads were taken daily to Trafalgar from where they were sent on to Melbourne by train. I should add that although the Thorpdale district was free of rabbits until about 1913, early settlers had a serious problem with wallabies. Walter Savige