"For the first time in my life I was fixated by searching for rabbit tracks on the dunes. After twenty minutes or so, I finally found the tracks of a lone rabbit. Previously it had been virtually impossible to follow a rabbit's path through the plethora of overlapping tracks.

John Read was one of the pioneers who in 1996, spurred by the success of the Rabbit Calicivirus Disease, developed the idea of fencing off an area in the outback and removing all introduced rabbits, cats and foxes.

These days that dream is a reality

Twenty kilometres north of Roxby Downs in South Australia, there are sixty square kilometres of land that are now officially FERAL-FREE! The product of years of hard work by volunteers and the generous support of a number of organisations, the Arid Recovery Project has removed all feral cats, foxes and rabbits from within the Reserve, developed an ingenious feral-proof fence and reintroduced four mammals that were previously locally extinct.

"Waterproof watches stop water. Rabbit-proof netting should bloody well stop rabbits. Three years later you could still read the big orange and black lies on rolls of forty-millimetre mesh."

You can read more about John and the team's adventures in his book, and you can learn more about the Arid Recovery Project via their website: www.aridrecovery.org.au

"No amount of talking can replace sweat, blisters and persistent lobbying for change. We can’t afford to put our feet up, or take our hats off yet."