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Canned rabbit, once a dinnertime delicacy, now consigned to the burrows of history
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-04/ ... /103532810
"The story of the Kingston Canning and Preserving factory — and that of the rabbit canning industry — is a fascinating one," said Kingston National Trust's Maureen Andrews.
"If you talk to people these days, the perception is that the rabbit trade was a sort of a sideline during the depression. But it was much, much more than that."
Between 1870 and 1970, more than 20 billion rabbits were trapped or poisoned in South Australia and Victoria for commercial purposes.
And by the late 1920s, the rabbit industry was reported to be the largest employer in Australia.
"Kingston had a very big canning factory which opened in 1902, but it only operated for four years until the explosion on the jetty when the cans overheated. There was also a report of botulism traced back to the cannery," Ms Andrews said.
"But it was a bustling venture in its day. The skins shed had a capacity of 30,000 and it could process 1,500 pairs of rabbits daily.
"It directly employed 14 people and exported 800,000 cans of rabbit and 10 tonnes of canned lobster and canned mutton to London."
"The Longwood cannery was founded in 1891 where it produced rabbit for the dinner table by canning one-and-a-half jointed rabbits in a tin with brine, which was then boiled for canning and sealed with lead solder," Ms Andrews said.
The Mount Gambier Rabbit and Meat Preserving Company opened works at Compton in 1897 where it operated for a little under 20 years, and at its height purchased about 4,000,000 rabbits a year.
- Rabbit trapper Alf Ling delivers rabbits to Kingston's rabbit cannery circa 1900.(Supplied: Kingston National Trust)
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