FORMER Australian cricketer Glenn McGrath last week met with Australia's leading scientists to launch a new community action campaign and website called RabbitScan.

RabbitScan has been launched amid renewed fears by government, industry and the community that rabbits are growing in numbers, their range and in the damage they cause right across Australia.

The website gives all Australians a new and simple guide to find and map local rabbit threats, using Google Earth technology specially designed to allow community and school groups to map local rabbits.

Glenn McGrath, who has family farming interests, shared rabbit stories passed on from his family and raised concerns that Australia's unique native habitat and animals were being threatened by the impacts of rabbits.

“Our kids need to know we did our best to protect our country, to stop the threats and the huge costs rabbits add to the pressures of looking after the land,” Mr McGrath said.

“The impacts of drought, floods and fires have devastated communities across Australia, but we are faced with an insidious threat with rabbits as well, and we can't ignore it.”

David Lord, a fourth generation wool grower from Broken Hill, and chairman of the national Rabbit Management Advisory Group (RMAG), came up with the innovative idea to ask schools and community groups to help find rabbits and map them.

“I'm hopeful all Australians will see the sense in this national effort, and if they need to remember why, could visit the website which has current and historic quotes, pictures and reports about the impacts of rabbits from 1859 right through to today,” Mr Lord said.

“It is a bigger task than a handful of rabbit experts and concerned landholders can manage; we really need the community to help us.”

Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IACRC) chief executive officer Tony Peacock commended the RabbitScan initiative and highlighted recent IACRC research which showed more than a third of Australians were now aware of rabbits as one of the top three pests and were willing to become involved to help remove this threat.

“I was amazed to hear a pair of rabbits can breed up to 184 in just 18 months, so the couple of rabbits you might see beside a local roadside will be quietly sparking a mass population, with potential for huge damage to habitat,” Mr McGrath said.

“I'd be bowled over with admiration if I could encourage thousands of communities and schools to join me and our top scientists to do a local RabbitScan and help reduce the rabbit threat.”

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is also supporting the launch through a national competition calling for community experiences with rabbits, called 'Rabbiting on'.

“The stories we've gathered with the help of ABC Rural and RMAG members, show the battles the last three to four generations have had and the various means we've used to tackle rabbits; it makes a fascinating and new angle to the history of Australia,” Mr Lord said.