Bunny Money
Rabbit trapping In The Stoney Rises
Trapping is a remunerative occupation, many men being able to make in the season, from March till November, sufficient to keep them comfortably all the year round; but the life is hard and arduous. Winter is the proper trapping season, when the rabbits are full grown. Then the preserving factories in Colac and Camperdown are in full swing, offering a constant market for the hundreds of rabbits sent to them daily. Carriers go about the country buying the game from the trappers at the rate of 4d. per pair.
It was a pitiable sight to see how the poor timid little creatures panted and trembled, crouched low down, with ears laid flat, in the hope that we might pass them by, their great soft eyes starting fearfully from their sockets. Sometimes one would make a bound as if it would tear its imprisoned limb asunder— as indeed they often do — but the inexorable trap would bring it up with a cruel tug when it reached the limit of the short chain. Certainly the trapper spares them as muoh pain as he can. In an instant he has them out of the trap and with a smart jerk dislocates the neck, completely severing the spinal cord.
Bunny often escapes through the misfortues of some of his neighbors — bandicoot, native cat, tiger cat, possum, magpie or parrot. Occasionally, a sheep, gets caught and the probability then is that there will be a good supply of fresh mutton for a day or two.