Footnotes
*The authors would like to thankLabour History‘s two anonymous referees and editorial caretakers for their help.
1. Sunday Times(Sydney), 3 June1906, 5.
2. Sunday Times(Sydney), 7 June1906, 2 and 10 June1906, 5.
3. The Advertiser(Adelaide), 23 July1921, 9.
4. Sun(Sydney), 20 May1941, 7.
5. Mudgee Guardian and North-Western Representative, 18 July1946, 13(Madden was from Mudgee);The Land, 19 July1946, 3.
6.New South Wales Legislative Assembly, First Annual Report of the Director of Labour Bureau of NSW for the Year Ending 30 June 1906(:Government Printer, 1906), 14.
7. The Sydney Wool and Stock Journal, 17 April1903, 7;Sydney Morning Herald(SMH), 30 September1904, 7.The Worker(Wagga Wagga), 9 May1907, 15, published a circular from the Melbourne Trades Hall Council (MTHC) asking unions and unionists to help the drive to form a rabbiters’ union. The MTHC believed there were “5,000 [rabbit trappers] at least” in Victoria. See also, MTHC, Minutes, 3 March 1906, 153 and 15 February 1907, 355, Victorian Trades Hall Collection, 1/1/1/8, University of Melbourne Archives.
8. The Mercury(Hobart), 9 July1929, 11;The Official Year Book of New South Wales, 1904–31, passim; Victorian Year Book, 1903–30, passim.
9.Brian Coman, Tooth & Nail: The Story of the Rabbit in Australia(:Text Publishing, 1999), 146–70, 236–37;SMH, 13 February2015, 12.
10.L. J. Dunn, The Rabbit Industry: An Economic Survey 1904–1947, prepared for the Bureau of Agricultural Economics ([:Bureau of Agricultural Economics], 1948).
11.K. T. H. Farrer, A Settlement Amply Supplied: Food Technology in Nineteenth Century Australia(:Melbourne University Press, 1980).
12.G. B. Eggleton, Last of the Lantern Swingers(:Parraweena Publishing, 1982).
13.Eric Rolls, They All Ran Wild(:Angus and Robertson, 1977, first published1969).
14.Catherine Watson, The Rabbit King(:Boniyong Pastoral Company, 1996).
15.Coman, Tooth & Nail.
16.J. D. Bailey, A Hundred Years of Pastoral Banking: A History of the Australian Mercantile Land and Finance Company 1863–1963(:Clarendon Press, 1966);Simon Ville, The Rural Entrepreneurs: A History of the Stock and Station Agent Industry in Australia and New Zealand(:Cambridge University Press, 2000);H. M. Boot, “Debts, Drought and Foreclosure: Wool-Producers in Queensland and New South Wales, 1870–1905,” Australian Economic History Review 28, no. 2(September1988):33–52;Alan Barnard, ed., The Simple Fleece: Studies in the Australian Wool Industry(:Melbourne University Press, 1962);Kosmas Tsokas, Markets, Money & Empire: The Political Economy of the Australian Wool Industry(:Melbourne University Press, 1990);James Griffin, ed., Essays in Economic History of Australia 1788–1939(:Jacaranda Press, 1967);N. G. Butlin, “The Shape of the Australian Economy, 1861–1900,” Economic Record 34, no. 67(April1958):10–29.
17.P. G. Macarthy, “Wage Determination in New South Wales 1890–1921,” Journal of Industrial Relations 10, no. 3(November1968):189–205;P. G. Macarthy, “Wages in Australia, 1891–1914,” Australian Economic History Review 10, no. 1(March1970):56–76;P. G. Macarthy, “The Living Wage in Australia: The Role of Government,” Labour History, no. 18(May1970):3–18; andP. G. Macarthy, “Wages for Unskilled Work, and Margins for Skill, Australia, 1901–21,” Australian Economic History Review 12, no. 2(September1972):142–60.
18.Jenny Lee andCharles Fahey, “A Boom for Whom? Some Developments in the Australian Labour Market, 1870–1891,” Labour History, no. 50(May1986):1–27.
19.Verity Burgmann andStuart Macintyre, “Divided We Fell,”inStaining the Wattle: A People’s History of Australia since 1788, eds.Verity Burgmann andJenny Lee(:McPhee Gribble/Penguin Books, 1988), 109–31;Charlie Fox andBruce Scates, “The Beat of Weary Feet,”inibid. 132–49;S. H. Fisher, “An Accumulation of Misery,” Labour History, no. 40(May1981):16–28;Peter Sheldon, “Job Control for Workers’ Health: The 1908 Sydney Rockchoppers’ Strike,” Labour History, no. 55(November1988):39–54;Peter Sheldon, “In Division is Strength: Unionism among Sydney Labourers, 1890–1910,” Labour History, no. 56(May1989):43–59;Peter Sheldon, “‘System and Strategy’: The Changing Shape of Unionism among NSW Construction Labourers, 1910–19,” Labour History, no. 65(November1993):115–35;Peter Sheldon, “The Dirtiest of Jobs: Maintaining Sydney’s Sewers, 1890–1910,” Labour History, no. 93(November2007):127–44; andPeter Sheldon, “Silicosis, Mechanisation and the Demise of Sydney’s Rockchoppers’ Union, 1908–18,” Labour History, no. 97(November2009):13–36;Bruce Scates, “A Struggle for Survival: Unemployment and Unemployed Agitation in Late Nineteenth Century Melbourne,” Labour History, no. 24(April1990):41–61.
20.Charles Fahey, “‘Abusing the Horses and Exploiting the Labourer’: The Victorian Agricultural and Pastoral Labourer, 1871–1911,” Labour History, no. 65(November1993):96–114; andCharles Fahey, “Unskilled Male Labour and the Beginnings of Labour Market Regulation, Victoria 1901–1914,” Australian Historical Studies 33, no. 119(April2002):143–60.
21.Humphrey McQueen, “Improvising Nomads,” Journal of Australian Colonial History 10, no. 2(2008):223–50.
22.Humphrey McQueen, A New Britannia: An Argument Concerning the Social Origins of Australian Radicalism and Nationalism(:Penguin Books, 4th ed., 1978), 142, 146.
23. Report of the Royal Commission Appointed to Inquire into the Introduction of Contagious Diseases Amongst Rabbits(:Government Printer, 1889), 1–29;“The Report of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Conditions of the Crown Tenants in Western Division of NSW,” Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly of NSW 4(1901):5–9;The Interim Report of the Royal Commission on Refrigerating Stores and Central Wine Depot[Victoria](:Government Printer, 1899), 1;David Stead, The Rabbit Menace in New South Wales(:Government Printer, 1928); andThe Royal Commission Appointed to Inquire into Certain Matters Relating to Rabbit, Dingo and Stock Route Administration[Queensland](:Government Printer, 1930).
24. Interim Report of the Royal Commission into the Alleged Shortage of Labour in the State of NSW(:Government Printer, 1911);Food Supplies and Trade and Industry During the War: Reports and Recommendations of the Commonwealth Royal Commission(:Government Printer, 1914); andReport of the NSW Board of Trade, Rural Industries and the Question of a Rural Living Wage(:Government Printer, 1921).
25.Bradley Bowden, Driving Force: The History of the Transport Workers’ Union of Australia 1883–1992(:Allen and Unwin, 1993), 32, 60, 79, 83;Mark Hearn andHarry Knowles, One Big Union: A History of the Australian Workers Union 1886–1994(:Cambridge University Press, 1996), 112;Queanbeyan Age, 9 May1911, 6;The Worker(Brisbane), 9 March1912, 12–13; 3 August1912, 13; and 12 March1914, 15;SMH, 23 April1912, 6; 14 December1922, 9; 16 December1922, 14; and 21 February1927, 12;The Land(Sydney), 19 January1917, 3. The peak bodies were the Country Rabbit Packers’ Association of NSW and The Victorian Rabbit Packers and Exporters Association.
26.Tubbo Estate Company Proprietary Limited Collection, RW 2, Charles Sturt University Regional Archives (CSURA); Erin Vale Station Collection, RW 93, CSURA; Mulwala Station Collection, RW233, CSURA;Paul de Serville, Tubbo: The Great Peter’s Run(:Oxford University Press, 1982), 138–39, 157–58;Michael McKernan, The Valley: A Story from the Heart of the Land(:Allen and Unwin, 2009), 195–96.
27.Michael Quinlan, “The Low Rumble of Informal Dissent: Shipboard Protests over Health and Safety in Australian Waters, 1790–1900,” Labour History, no. 102(May2012):133.
28.R. B. Walker, The Newspaper Press in New South Wales 1803–1920(:Sydney University Press, 1976), 176;R. B. Walker, Yesterday’s News: A History of the Newspaper Press in New South Wales from 1920 to 1945(:Sydney University Press, 1980), 166.
29.Warwick Eather andDrew Cottle, “A Power in the Bush: The Rabbit Industry in South-East Australia 1870–1950,” Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 102, no. 1(June2016):73–74.
30. The Hobart Town Courier, 8 January1836, 3;SMH, 6 October1873, 7;Launceston Examiner, 1878–83, passim;The Mercury(Hobart), 1873–83, passim; and 18 November1948, 3;The Bacchus Marsh Express, 8 January1881, 4.
31.For Victoria, seeVictorian Year Book, 1895–98, 925;The Broadford Courier and Ready Creek Times, 17 April1903, 2. ForTasmania, seeOakleigh Leader(North Brighton), 15 October1892, 2;The Mercury(Hobart), 21 October1896, 2;Launceston Examiner, 2 September1897, 4. For South Australia, seeThe Register(Adelaide), 2 October1905, 6. For 1901–1950, seeDunn, The Rabbit Industry, Appendix A.
32. Kerang Times and Swan Hill Gazette, 8 May1885, 4;Victorian Year Book, 1880–81, 70and1895–98, 925;The Mercury(Hobart), 20 January1873, 2 and 3 August1875, 3;Irene Schaffer, “Bidencope, Joseph (1837–1915),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplement, ed.Christopher Cunneen(:Melbourne University Press, 2005), 30–31;Percy Begg, Detailed Review of the Activities of the Australian Rabbit Skin Board 1940–1950(:Australian Rabbit Skin Board, 1950), 11–27, 43 and Section O, 1–6.
33.Eather andCottle, “A Power in the Bush,” 74–75.
34. Ibid., 75–76;Frankston and Somerville Standard, 3 September1932, 4;Eric N. Birks, Brief History of Wilcox Mofflin Limited and Present Day Organisation(:Radcliffe Press, [1921]), 20. Birks claims that Sydney’s small good shops retailed 20,000 rabbits a day.
35. Evening News(Sydney), 22 October1908, 3. See alsoSMH, 18 May1910, 6.
36.Eather andCottle, “A Power in the Bush,” 76–77.
37. The Argus(Melbourne), 25 April1902, 3;The Burrowa News, 17 June1927, 7.
38. Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 25 July1916, 3. For families, seeSMH, 20 June1906, 1 and 5 June1911, 8;Evening News(Sydney), 21 April1908, 3;The Argus(Melbourne), 5 July1910, 8.
39. Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 12 July1907, 46;Camperdown Chronicle, 15 June1915, 3;The Southern Record and Advertiser(Condelo), 17 May1929, 2;The Mercury(Hobart), 6 March1953, 7.
40. Sunday Times(Sydney), 3 June1906, 5;NSW State Labour Bureau, The Rabbiters’ Guide: Information for Rabbiters(:The Bureau, [1907]), 5–6.
41. Hardware Journal, December1956, 56and September1961, 36; we thank Humphrey McQueen for these references. For trap prices and imports, seeTariff Board’s Report and Recommendation on Rabbit Traps, 21 December1932(,Government Printer, 1933), 1–7;Portland Guardian, 14 March1892, 3;The Bathurst Times, 30 January1918, 3;Daily Observer(Tamworth), 1 August1919, 1;Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 13 February1920, 2;Barrier Miner(Broken Hill), 3 December1924, 4;Examiner(), 17 April1929, 7;The Australian Women’s Weekly, 22 May1948, 20.
42. The Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 7 August1917, 2.
43. The Gundagai Independent and Pastoral, Agricultural and Mining Advocate, 12 April1926, 3;SMH, 23 February1926, 10.
44. The Burrowa News, 5 November1926, 1.
45. The Land(), 28 August1925, 14.
46.Stead, The Rabbit Menace, 39–41;Birks, Brief History of Wilcox Mofflin Limited, 10–15;New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Labour Commissioners, Report for the Year Ended 30 June 1905(:Government Printer, 1905), 5.
47. Yea Chronicle, 9 April1903, 2.
48.Stead, The Rabbit Menace, 42.
49. The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 27 November1951, 1. See also, The Muswellbrook Chronicle, 28 January1949, 8;Cootamundra Herald, 9 December1949, 2;Worker(), 16 January1950, 6;The Burrowa News, 20 January1951, 5;Western Herald(Bourke), 20 April1951, 12.
50.Stead, The Rabbit Menace, 42;The Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 18 February1908, 3. For Port Augusta, seeThe Advertiser(Adelaide), 9 December1908, 8. For Collerenebri and other towns, seeAustralian Town and Country Journal, 20 December1905, 21. For the use of pit traps during plagues, seeChronicle(Adelaide), 29 June1918, 12.
51.Stead, The Rabbit Menace, 39–45, 72. For Darlington Point, seeThe Land(Sydney), 23 April1937, 5. For rabbit drives, seeJenny Quealy, ed., Great Australian Rabbit Stories(:ABC Books, 2010), 223–43;Patsy Adam Smith, Hear the Train Blow(:Penguin Books, 1992), 16;McKernan, The Valley, 217;Australian Town and Country Journal, 2 May1906, 11;The Peak Hill Express, 23 November1906, 10;The Burrowa News, 28 February1919, 7.
52.Stead, The Rabbit Menace, 46–69;Rolls, They All Ran Wild, 137–39;Ray Gadd inBoots and All: An Oral History of Farming in Victoria, ed.Catherine Watson(:Friends of the Earth, 1984), 9;The Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 4 March1902, 5.
53.Watson, The Rabbit King, 74–76;Birks, Brief History of Wilcox Mofflin Limited, 16–17;Portland Guardian, 6 July1892, 4;The Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 4 March1902, 5;The Burra Record(), 12 October1904, 6.
54.Warwick Eather andDrew Cottle, “The Rabbit Industry in South-East Australia, 1870–1970”(refereed paper presented at 14th Biennial Labour History Conference,University of Melbourne, 11–13 February2015), 17–19.
55.Eather andCottle, “A Power in the Bush,” 76–79;Birks, Brief History of Wilcox Mofflin Limited, 16–18;New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Labour Commissioners, Report for the Year Ended 30 June 1904(:Government Printer, 1904), 14;New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Labour Commissioners, Report for the Year Ended 30 June1905, 4–5;First Annual Report of the Director of Labour, State Labour Bureau of NSW for the Year Ending 30 June1906, 14–15;W. J. P. Giddings, Rabbit Destruction: Dr Danysz’s Proposed Experiments(:Commonwealth Government Printer, 1906), 5.
56. The Age(), 29 April1904, 2.
57.W. M. Sherrie, “Industrial Aspect of the Rabbit,” The Argus(Melbourne), 27 November1909, 8.
58. Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 17 March1903, 2;Australian Town and Country Journal, 18 January1905, 13; 14 February1906, 21 and 20 June1906, 13;Worker(Brisbane), 22 September1906, 7;The Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser, 4 May1907, 2;SMH, 16 May1907, 5 and 22 July1910, 4;The Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 26 June1908, 6. For £10 a week or more, seeSMH, 16 June1908, 5; 25 June1908, 7; 30 November1908, 8; 11 December1908, 4; 19 May1909, 7; 16 March1910, 9; 5 May1910, 4; and 13 June1910, 5;Queanbeyan Age, 25 February1908, 2;Kilmore Free Press, 10 September1908, 4;The Register(), 14 May1910, 14;The North East Ensign(), 20 May1910, 4;Barrier Miner(), 7 June1910, 2 and 13 June1910, 2; For skins, £20 or more, seeSMH, 19 April1910, 4; 28 April1910, 4; and 5 May1910, 4;The Sydney Stock and Station Journal, 18 March1910, 6.
59. SMH, 18 May1910, 6.
60. Adelong and Tumut Express and Tumbarumba Post, 14 February1908, 3;Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 12 October1909, 4;The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 22 March1911, 1;The Bathurst Times, 12 May1910, 3; 8 September1910, 3; 26 January1911, 1; and 19 May1911, 2;The Bega Budget, 26 August1911, 1;The Farmer and Settler(Sydney), 22 September1911, 6;Goulburn Evening Penny Post, 31 July1913, 4.
61. Molong Express and Western District Advertiser(NSW), 25 July1908, 12;SMH, 3 August1910, 7.
62. Queanbeyan Age, 15 August1911, 2 and 12 July1912, 2.
63. Albury Banner and Wodonga Express, 20 June1913, 6.
64. Border Watch(Mount Gambier), 25 January1911, 3.
65. The Horsham Times, 18 July1913, 6.
66. Daily Observer(Tamworth), 1 August1919, 1.
67. The Dubbo Liberal and Macquarie Advocate, 23 January1920, 4.
68. The Armidale Express and New England General Advertiser, 29 July1921, 7.
69.Eather andCottle, “The Rabbit Industry in South-East Australia,” 17–21;The Official Year Book of New South Wales, 1935–36, 818;Singleton Argus, 4 March1932, 6.
70. Murray River and Australian River Record, 22 April1932, 4; 26 May1932, 4 and 19 January1933, 3;Burra Record, 5 April1933, 4.
71. The Courier Mail, 6 April1934, 4; 16 April1934, 3; 16 May1934, 6; and 11 November1941, 3.
72. The Grenfell Record and Lachlan District Advertiser, 19 June1933, 2;SMH, 19 August1933, 13 and 24 July1934, 1and10;The Land(Sydney), 25 August1933, 6;Singleton Argus, 8 June1934, 7;The Southern Record and Advertiser(Condelo), 27 July1934, 1. For Aspinall, seeThe Carcoar Chronicle, 30 June1933, 1.
73. The Argus(), 26 May1941, 2;The Courier Mail, 6 July1944, 4.
74. The Land(), 30 May1941, 3.
75. The Canberra Times, 3 August1943, 4 and 3 May1944, 2.
76. The Mercury(), 22 May1944, 5;Advocate(Burnie), 16 July1946, 4;Official Year Book of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1944–45, 335.
77.Eather andCottle, “The Rabbit Industry in South-East Australia,” 21.
78. The Land(), 16 August1946, 13.
79. The Land(Sydney), 26 July1946, 11. The figures were provided by Mr R. C. Wilson of the Graziers’ Association of NSW’s General Council.
80. Sunday Times(Sydney), 17 June1906, 2;First Annual Report of the Director of Labour, State Labour Bureau of NSW for the Year Ending 30 June1906, 14.
81. SMH, 12 August1908, 8;New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Second Annual Report of the Director of Labour, State Labour Bureau of NSW for the Year Ending 30 June 1907(:Government Printer, 1907), 13.
82.Eather andCottle, “The Rabbit Industry in South-East Australia,” 16;Second Annual Report of the Director of Labour, State Labour Bureau of NSW for the Year Ending 30 June1907, 13.
83. SMH, 28 January1920, 9.
84.H. F. L. Palmer, Armidale, Letter to the Editor, 17 May1923, SMH, 25 May1923, 15.
85. Second Annual Report of the Director of Labour, State Labour Bureau of NSW for the Year Ending 30 June1907, 13.
86.New South Wales Legislative Council, Hansard(11 March1927):2270–73;SMH, 8 March1921, 8.
87. The Register(Adelaide), 28 June1906, 6;Report of the NSW Board of Trade, 39.
88. Bairnsdale Advertiser and Tambo and Omeo Chronicle, 10 September1907, 4.
89. SMH, 23 January1911, 26;The Land(Sydney), 5 January1912, 7;Daily Advertiser(Wagga Wagga), March1914, passim;The Farmer and Settler(Sydney), 10 March1914, 2;Report of the NSW Board of Trade, 39;The Argus(Melbourne), 18 July1917, 8.
90. Daily Advertiser(Wagga Wagga), 17–30 May1917, passim; The Land(Sydney), May1917, passim; The Bathurst Times, 21 May1917, 1;Bendigo Advertiser, 21 May1917, 4;SMH, 22 May1917, 5.
91. The Peak Hill Express, 18 May1906, 17 and 15 June1906, 18;Evening News(Sydney), 22 October1908, 3;The Register(), 14 May1910, 14;West Gippsland Gazette(), 24 May1910, 7.
92. Australian Town and Country Journal, 25 March1893, 43.
93. The Manaro Mercury, and Cooma and Bombala Advertiser, 29 August1902, 2;The Advertiser(), 29 January1920, 4.
94. The Land(), 13 August1926, 15.
95. Kilmore Free Press, 24 January1918, 1.
96. Australian Town and Country Journal, 20 June1906, 22;SMH, 20 February1920, 5.
97.David Dunstan, “Bolte, Sir Henry Edward (1908–1990),” Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17, ed.Diane Langmore(:Melbourne University Press, 2007), 120;Tom Prior, Bolte by Bolte(:Craftsman Publishing Proprietary Limited, 1990), 15–19.
98. The Braidwood Review and District Advocate, 7 June1921, 2;Queanbeyan Age and Queanbeyan Observer, 1 July1921, 2;SMH, 25 July1922, 7 and 20 January1923, 13.
99. The Bathurst Times, 17 April1925, 2.
100. Kilmore Free Press, 10 February1898, 2.