COOLAMON: Rabbit damage in New South Wales’ Riverina is forcing some farmers to cut production and raise spending on control measures, as landholders and councils warn existing tools are struggling to keep pace with resurgent populations. Peter O’Brien, who farms near Coolamon, has left a 120 hectare paddock out of canola production for three years after rabbits destroyed part of the crop in 2023. He estimates the problem is costing his operation A$50,000 to A$100,000 a year in lost output and labour tied to repeated control work.
The latest round of coordinated baiting in the district has brought together O’Brien and seven neighbouring landholders, with Local Land Services supporting the use of Pindone treated carrots to reduce numbers across adjoining properties. NSW government schedules show bait collection points have been operating across the Riverina through March and April 2026, including sites in Marrar, Junee Reefs and other nearby communities. The state has also kept subsidised fresh cut rabbit bait available in the Riverina until June 30, 2026, as part of broader pest animal programs.
NSW guidance classifies the European rabbit as one of the state’s most destructive agricultural and environmental vertebrate pests and says landholders have a General Biosecurity Duty to reduce the risks it creates. Official advice says rabbits damage crops and pastures, strip native vegetation, increase erosion and undermine structures, while control is most effective when neighbouring properties act at the same time. The same guidance says baiting can quickly reduce numbers but has to be combined with follow up methods such as warren destruction, fencing, shooting and ongoing monitoring.
Coordinated response broadens
The pressure is no longer confined to farmland. In Junee, rabbit warrens have damaged cemetery sites and affected other public land, adding to costs for local government as regional councils manage the same pest burden faced by producers. Junee Shire Mayor Bob Callow has said the council could not afford A$30,000 for every baiting program and estimated a broader response across all affected areas would cost about A$1 million a year. The spread into town land has sharpened concerns that rabbit control is becoming both an agricultural and civic cost issue across the district.
At the national level, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry says European wild rabbits cost Australia’s agricultural sector up to A$197 million a year in control costs and losses, and describes the rabbit as the most cited invasive species affecting threatened native species. The department says the national rabbit biocontrol strategy was approved in February 2024 and that it is funding CSIRO’s National Rabbit Disease Monitoring Program as well as the first phase of a Future Proofing Rabbit Biocontrol program aimed at identifying virus variants that could become candidates for future release.
Biocontrol push gains urgency
That federal work comes as landholders report declining effectiveness from older biological controls. NSW guidance says rabbit diseases persist in wild populations but cannot be relied on alone because some rabbits may have immunity, making integrated control essential. On the ground, that means producers are still investing in labour intensive measures such as baiting, ripping warrens and shooting survivors after initial knockdowns. For growers in mixed farming country, the cost is measured not only in control bills but in delayed planting, lost crop income and the diversion of time away from core farm operations.
NSW authorities are also pursuing the same coordinated model outside the Riverina, underlining how widely the rabbit problem is being managed in 2026. A Local Land Services program in the Southern Highlands that began in late February has involved up to 80 private landholders, council sites, contractors and more than six tonnes of carrot bait across six towns, with more than 250 hectares treated in Berrima alone. For Riverina producers and councils, those efforts reinforce a central point already visible around Coolamon and Junee: rabbit control is now a sustained regional biosecurity issue requiring repeated, coordinated action rather than a one season fix. – By Content Syndication Services.