THE days are numbered for the hundreds of rabbits currently calling City Hill home; after nearly two and half years of planning, the ACT government has finally announced it’s taking them on.

Its rabbit control program will start on the historic Vernon Circle hill on Monday and will run through until next month.

“Rabbits are a declared pest under the Pest Plants and Animals Act 2005 and control operations are designed to maintain rabbit populations below a density where they can cause significant harm to the environment or to other assets,” said executive branch manager for City Presentation, Daniel Iglesias.

“Significant rabbit numbers and damage from rabbits has been identified in both urban areas, including damage to the Italian Pencil Pines (Cupressus sempervirens) on City Hill.

“This control program is not only designed to protect these trees of significance, but address animal welfare concerns due to insufficient vegetation to support grazing for a large population, traffic concerns from road users braking or swerving to avoid collisions, and the risk rabbit burrowing poses to pedestrians walking through the area,” Mr Iglesias said.

He said rabbit control would be mostly undertaken at night when the area was generally not in public use. A formal closure of the area was not deemed necessary, but signage would be on display to inform the community of the rabbit control operations.

A range of control techniques would be utilised on City Hill including fumigation, shooting pellets by air rifle and destruction of rabbit warrens.

“The operations will be undertaken by a qualified, certified contractor who is experienced in rabbit control in publicly accessible urban areas,” Mr Iglesias said.

“Follow-up assessments will be undertaken after the initial operations are completed in December 2023. These will help to determine the effectiveness of the control program and determine whether any follow up action is required in the short term or in future.”

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