Was Thomas Austin Australia’s greatest environmental idiot?

Thomas Austin built a mansion fit for royalty but he will forever be remembered for one of history’s biggest bungles: not keeping the rabbits out.

Thomas Austin, an early pastoralist who introduced feral rabbits to Australia.

In 1871, Thomas Austin built a lavish 42-room mansion fit for royalty because he felt embarrassed after entertaining the visiting Prince Alfred at a humble homestead.

But the early settler is remembered chiefly not for his exquisite taste or great success as a pastoralist, but for one of Australian history’s greatest bungles.

Austin introduced rabbits as game for shooting parties at his 12,000ha Winchelsea property, Barwon Park, a record-breaking act of environmental vandalism that stands to this day.

The story is told in the latest episode of the free In Black and White podcast on Australia’s forgotten characters, with comedian-turned-history writer Mikey Robins:

Robins tells the tale in his latest book, Idiots, Follies and Misadventures, out now.

Contrary to popular belief, Austin’s rabbits were not the first in Australia.

“We actually had rabbits in Australia with the First Fleet,” Robins says.

“Andrew Millar, he was the commissary officer on the First Fleet, he records there were rabbits in hutches, about nine of them, that were brought out for the convicts, or probably actually more for the officers, to eat.

“But it would seem that these rabbits pretty much stayed consumed and hutched, quite containably.”

Idiots, Follies & Misadventures by Mikey Robins.

Comedian, broadcaster and history author Mikey Robins.

But on Christmas Day 1859, Australia’s rabbit problem began.

As a member of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria, Austin had already helped introduce many species from his homeland of England, including hares, blackbirds and thrushes.

But Austin wanted Christmas 1859 to be an event to remember.

So he went to great effort to import 24 plump and speedy rabbits – a move that was widely praised by other settlers at the time.

Rabbit hunting as pest control and sport became popular in the early 20th century. Picture: State Library of Victoria

“He actually got people to go to Europe and collect what were considered to be the best hunting rabbits,” says Robins, who co-hosts a podcast called Heroes and Howlers, and the Rest is History.

“He had them brought to his estate and on Christmas Day, he had … the 13 survivors released, as part of a Yuletide gift that no one wanted or needed.”

The 13 multiplied so fast that when Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria’s second son, visited Barwon Park eight years after the release, he alone shot 416 rabbits in 3½ hours.

An impression of the Duke of Edinburgh’s hunting outing at Thomas Austin’s property.

Robins says that in less than 50 years from 1859, rabbits had spread so fast that our first rabbit plague is still considered to be the largest and fastest colonisation of any mammal over any stretch of land ever recorded.

A recent study confirmed Australia’s feral rabbit population is entirely descended from the rabbits Austin released 164 years ago.

Barwon Park Mansion in Winchelsea.

Thomas didn’t live long enough to see the full consequences of his foolishness unfold.

He died six months after his sprawling bluestone mansion was completed, though his wife, Elizabeth, remained for many years at Barwon Park Mansion, which still stands today.

To find out more, listen to the interview in the free In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper every Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.