What is the rabbit-proof fence?

This 100-year-old fence was once the longest in the world. It stretched across southern Australia. It took six years and over 400 people to build this fence of wire and net. And it was all because of rabbits.

A man who settled in Australia during the 1850s missed the rabbits he once hunted back home in England. So, in 1859, he brought 24 rabbits to Australia. By 1894 — just 35 years later — rabbits were found across the entire country. Since rabbits did not naturally live in Australia, they had no predators to keep their population low. Farmers and ranchers saw the rabbits as pests that competed with their livestock for food and land. To keep the rabbits out of farm and ranch land of western Australia, the government built three rabbit-proof fences between 1901 and 1907. Altogether, the fences spanned 3250 kilometres, which is about the distance from Vancouver to Toronto. Parts of the fence are still in use today.