Barwon Park and rabbits

from w
On the way back to Geelong on Sunday afternoon we took the left turn after Winchelsea to visit the grand mansion of Barwon Park, once a rich squatter's house. It's a Heritage building owned now by the government and kept very nice with antiques and shows us how the class system once worked in Australia, the superb large rooms and the tiny servant's roomlets! But this story is about rabbits. The Austins thought that importing a dozen pairs of rabbits would be good for friends to shoot at, but over time those rabbits multiplied to become millions and millions and they became a pest. People used to eat them a lot until the myxo killed most off, but they are out and about again. Brown rabbits live in our local cemetery and I don't want our pet dwarf nederland lop going near them! Anyway at Barwon Park here and there are cute toy rabbits as a reminder of Austin's folly. Of course we must also remember that Mrs Austin was a fine philanthropist and gave money to start a hospital in Melbourne - called of course the Austin.