Thomas Austin released two dozen wild European rabbits on his property in Barwon Park, near Winchelsea, Victoria, for the purpose of hunting. Without natural predators, the rabbit population exploded across the Australian continent within decades, leading to catastrophic ecological degradation. This remains one of the most famous examples of an invasive species altering a continent's entire ecosystem.

The rabbit plague became a powerful metaphor in Australian verse for the unintended consequences of colonialism and the fragility of the 'new world' environment. Many bush ballads and nature poems from the late 19th and early 20th centuries grapple with the environmental anxiety caused by this biological catastrophe.