Fellow rabbit "fans", There is a website http://rubens.anu.edu.au/student.projects/rabbits/histroy.html entitled: "History of the European Wild Rabbit in Australia"., in which they refer to a book: "They all Ran Wild" by E.C. Rolls (Angus & Robertson, Sydney). It is stated in one paragraph: "The rabbit did not spread naturally across Australia. Its social structure is such that only at the point of a population collapse at the brink of starvation will the young bucks and subordinate does leave to establish themselves elsewhere. Floods, fire and other such extreme events such as hunting pressure will also cause an exodus of rabbits. Spreading across Australia may have taken a lot longer if it weren't for the sportsmans [sic] and trappers who had an incentive to assist the spread of the rabbit to ensure their future prosperity." I wonder if we are giving the ancestors of the Gippsland rabbits undue credit for their enterprise in overcoming such daunting obstacles as the Great Dividing Range, the Gippsland rivers and/or the Moe and Kooweerup Swamps. The rabbits may have been given a helping hand by (kindly?) trappers and sportsmen. Walter Savige