Rabbits

Rabbits

Raymond E MacRae 07.06.2011

Patrick MacRae and wife Mary (Dodd) moved into Lake Cargelligo (Pop aprox 800) from “Craig Leigh” our farm about 1952. I was 10 and did not take well to being a townie. School was another dislike, mum was our teacher on the farm and we were ahead of the class we were put into which caused a little trouble.

Eventually I had to learn to grow into being a townie as did my other relatives who had done the same several years before and were able to help me adjust. Weekends allowed me back on the farm to help Dad with the work which I enjoyed and I liked the men who came from time to time in different seasons to help as well.

Our sheep were too expensive for us to eat all the time so we ate rabbits and there were plenty of them. Each one we ate was one less mouth to eat our grass and more for the lambs to eat.

Most Friday nights we went out from the farm house with the rabbit traps, a lantern, and paper for the tongue of the trap and excitement.

We knew where most of the warrens were and could find our way about by the moonlight or with the lantern on dark nights.

Our first job was to clean the entrance of the burrow and drive the peg hold the trap into the ground. Next was the tricky part, we loaded or set the trap, careful not to spring it and catch your self. As a youngster we all learned by experience how to set a trap. We then placed a paper square on the tongue and gently sprinkled the fine dust to cover it all, and stepped back. We then drew with the setter an arrow to the next warren and off to set more traps.

Sometimes we would set 2 or more traps in one warren depending on the traffic we could deduce by the activity of the rabbits and their tracks.

It was almost impossible to trap during a rain period because the rabbits changed their activities and stayed underground for longer periods.

However rain was not one of our main concerns as it did not rain very often and if it did it was perhaps 2 days and it was mostly while I was in town at school.

We would go around the traps at 3am and collect any rabbit caught, ring their neck and place them on a small trailer we pulled along with us. Then reset the traps for another round at 6am. Then at 6am we brought the traps back with any rabbits that we had caught.

We then gutted and skun the catch and put them into a cooler which was a home made water operated early type fridge.

Some we hung in a hessian bag in the shade under a tree, these we ate until we went back to town Saturday night. Sometimes we took 20 or more to town and mum used some for a stew the rest were baked during the week or given to neighbours.

Our traps were “Lanes Ace” very modern much better than the old ones G/Pa George used when he was young out on the farm. He used to say “you kids have it easy these days” why I can remember yackty yackty you know what I mean all G/pas are the same. As I am getting older I realise we G/Pas have not changed much it is the life style that changes.

Well, we were not the only ones who lived on rabbits. Around the township was a common on which the people ran their cows for milking. There were rabbit warrens there too. The local kids had their particular warren where they set traps. Often there were fist fights if someone’s warren had no rabbits so they set their traps on someone else’s warren. Some warrens had been in the family for many years. We only trapped when there were plenty of rabbits. We would wait until the next lot of kittens were big enough. They were tough days brining the cows and calves in for milking, 2 cows each day before school. Looking back now it was a great life.