Rabbit-Proof Fence tells the true story of three mixed-race Aboriginal girls who, after being forcibly removed from their families, are shipped to a 'camp' where they will be trained to be domestic servants. In each case they have white fathers and Aboriginal mothers. They decide to escape and return to their families by walking all the way across desert and scrubland using the rabbit-proof fence as a guide. The fence, which ran over 1800 kilometres (1100 miles) north to south across the whole continent, was built by the Australian Government in a misguided attempt to stem the devastating advance of rabbits and other destructive animals into Western Australia from the East. It didn't really work.
Rabbits are not indigenous to Australia but were introduced by the First Fleet of eleven ships in 1788 and later, in a devastating way, for sport. The book was written by the daughter of one of the three young girls who were very clever at evading capture and were not sent back to the camp. It's not a particularly well-written book but the story is captivating and written in a fairly matter-of-fact style so that one only realises the true horror of the situation at a later time.
I'm listening, appropriately, to Eric Bogle's wonderful song about about Australian soldiers in World War One. It's very moving. Listen to And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda here.
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In 1859 British-born pastoralists had wanted to make Australia more like their homeland, so they released rabbits into the bush. Within 20 years, our entire continent was overrun by a rabbit plague!! The eastern colonies' economies were totally threatened and the NSW premier was desperate. So in 1887 he launched an international competition with a huge financial award for any successful scientist. Prof Louis Pasteur wanted to travel to Australia himself, but he was ill. So he sent his brilliant nephew scientist Dr Adrien Loir (1862-1941) to represent The Pasteur Institute.
https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2011/01/louis-pasteur-rabbits-and-sex-in.html
Alas the rabbit-proof fence, covering thousands of ks, wasn't completed until the 1905-7 era. Even more unfortunately, aboriginal children were being removed from their parents until after WW2, so the excellent film was set decades after the rabbit-proof fence was built. [I haven't read the book].
Hello Bazza, This is the usual path of taking over a country--squeezing out indigenous people and introducing foreign species (often to "normalize" things as in the "perfect" home country) which turn out to be pests. But taking away children is a real low point, although probably the people who worked on this were do-gooders who thought they were benefiting the children. But good for these kids who got away!
--Jim
Hels: I haven't seen the film although I have tried to find it. I didn't know about Louie Pasteur's desire to help but I do remember learning in school about myxomatoses and how it affected the rabbit population in Australia. Thank for the link - I'm going there next!
Jim: It's an often-repeated sad story. I'm not sure that it has ended...
Hi Bazza - I've seen the film ... it's heart-rending ... desperate times. I hadn't known about Louis Pasteur's link ... though I remember Myxomatosis in the 1950s. I hope you get to see the film sometime, though I'm sure the book is 'a good (better) read' especially as it was written by the daughter of one of the three young girls in the story. Cheers Hilary
Hilary: I would still like to see the film and I'm sure I will eventually. It's compelling story but my hunch is that it could be told better via a film.
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