Rabbits in her sights

By Russell Bennett
MACCLESFIELD woman Irene Pearey’s work on rabbit control, ragwort eradication and protecting the helmeted honeyeater population has earned her the prized 2012 Yarra Ranges Council Environmental Achiever of the Year award.
She was presented with her award at the shire’s Australia Day awards ceremony at Burrinja in Upwey.
But she was modest with the award: “There were several other people equally as worthy.”
Ms Pearey, of Macclesfield Landcare, has led the way on the local rabbit control program.
“Our initial aim in 2010 was to educate local people on the problem,” she said.
“Around 100 people filled the Macclesfield hall for a community meeting on it.”
Ms Pearey said that hills rabbits are not the fluffy and cuddly animals of nursery rhymes and that if locals did not get on top of the situation, the pests would continue to harm local pasture and undermine structures including water tanks.
Ms Pearey has started recruiting for a rabbit action group to work on clusters of properties at a time, but said the difficulty in attracting funding for rabbit control programs was a constant bugbear.
“A lot of it is short-term,” she said.
“We need to keep finding ways of keeping it going because it must be ongoing.”