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Government report card reveals Victoria failing to get rabbits under control

A new national report card compiled by Australia’s governments has revealed Australia is failing to make meaningful progress against one of its most destructive invasive species, with rabbit numbers rising in several states and their impacts on native wildlife and agriculture worsening.

The National Vertebrate Pest Management Report Card (2026), prepared by state, territory and federal governments, reveals that over the past five years, rabbit numbers, distribution and impacts have remained largely unchanged nationally.

Rabbit populations have increased in Victoria, Tasmania and the ACT, while environmental damage is worsening in NSW and Tasmania.

There are an estimated 200 million rabbits across Australia, threatening 322 nationally listed species, destroying native vegetation and wildlife habitat, and causing more than $200 million in agricultural losses each year.

The findings come as the future of the federal government’s flagship Established Pest Animals and Weeds program hangs in the balance, after ongoing funding was not included in the federal budget. A decision on its future is now needed in the upcoming Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO).

‘Rabbits have been devastating Australian landscapes for more than 150 years, yet this report shows we’re still failing to get their numbers down across the country,’ Invasive Species Council Advocacy Director Reece Pianta said. 

‘With an estimated 200 million rabbits stripping landscapes bare, stopping native plants from regenerating and destroying habitat for wildlife, we cannot afford to let this problem get any worse.

‘We know rabbit control works when governments, landholders and communities have the tools and resources to act together. What doesn’t work is allowing funding to disappear while rabbit populations continue to breed and spread.

‘This report raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of existing rabbit management programs, with most reporting jurisdictions only partially achieving, or failing to achieve, their objectives to reduce rabbit impacts.

‘Rabbit biocontrol has been one of Australia’s greatest environmental success stories, but rabbits are gradually developing resistance to existing viruses, and we need to stay ahead of that.

‘We welcomed the Albanese Government’s $2.6 million investment in the first phase of new rabbit biocontrol research earlier this year, but further funding is essential to complete the program and deliver the next generation of rabbit biocontrol tools.

‘The federal government has an opportunity in MYEFO to secure the future of its Established Pest Animals and Weeds program and ensure we’re not abandoning the long-term work needed to protect Australia’s wildlife and agricultural industries.’

Media inquiries: (02) 8006 5004

Image credit: John Cull

Background:

  • Rabbits are one of Australia’s most destructive invasive species, threatening 322 nationally listed threatened species and causing more than $200 million in agricultural losses each year.
  • There are an estimated 200 million rabbits across Australia.
  • Rabbit biocontrol has been one of Australia’s greatest environmental success stories, significantly reducing rabbit populations since the 1950s and helping native wildlife recover.
  • The current rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) was released in 2017, but rabbits gradually develop resistance, making continued research essential.
  • Earlier this year, the federal government announced a $2.6 million investment in Commonwealth funding for a $4 million Phase 1 national partnership to identify potential new RHDV variants and prepare for future regulatory approvals.
  • Subject to the success of Phase 1, further investment will be needed to progress virus development, vaccine development, risk assessment and release planning before any future biocontrol can be released.

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    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]


    Dear Project Team,

    [YOUR PERSONALISED MESSAGE WILL APPEAR HERE.] 

    I support the amendment to the Kosciuszko National Park Wild Horse Heritage Management Plan to allow our incredible National Parks staff to use aerial shooting as one method to rapidly reduce feral horse numbers. I want to see feral horse numbers urgently reduced in order to save the national park and our native wildlife that live there.

    The current approach is not solving the problem. Feral horse numbers have rapidly increased in Kosciuszko National Park to around 18,000, a 30% jump in just the past 2 years. With the population so high, thousands of feral horses need to be removed annually to reduce numbers and stop our National Park becoming a horse paddock. Aerial shooting, undertaken humanely and safely by professionals using standard protocols, is the only way this can happen.

    The government’s own management plan for feral horses states that ‘if undertaken in accordance with best practice, aerial shooting can have the lowest negative animal welfare impacts of all lethal control methods’.

    This humane and effective practice is already used across Australia to manage hundreds of thousands of feral animals like horses, deer, pigs, and goats.

    Trapping and rehoming of feral horses has been used in Kosciuszko National Park for well over a decade but has consistently failed to reduce the population, has delayed meaningful action and is expensive. There are too many feral horses in the Alps and not enough demand for rehoming for it to be relied upon for the reduction of the population.

    Fertility control as a management tool is only effective for a small, geographically isolated, and accessible population of feral horses where the management outcome sought is to maintain the population at its current size. It is not a viable option to reduce the large and growing feral horse population in the vast and rugged terrain of Kosciuszko National Park.

    Feral horses are trashing and trampling our sensitive alpine ecosystems and streams, causing the decline and extinction of native animals. The federal government’s Threatened Species Scientific Committee has stated that feral horses ‘may be the crucial factor that causes final extinction’ for 12 alpine species.

    I recognise the sad reality that urgent and humane measures are necessary to urgently remove the horses or they will destroy the Snowies and the native wildlife that call the mountains home. I support a healthy national park where native species like the Corroboree Frog and Mountain Pygmy Possum can thrive.

    Kind regards,
    [Your name]
    [Your email address]
    [Your postcode]