The farm had been denuded of trees to fuel tin mining at Eldorado which exposed the fragile, light, decomposed granite soil and made it even more vulnerable to rabbits. Even driving over parts of the property was impossible because vehicles crumbled the rabbit warrens.
The Campbells shot, poisoned, blew up, netted and dogged rabbits for 40 years while planting about one million trees and improved pasture species and ripping Yeomans style on the contour, across the 600 acre property. In one early year they laid just short of 100km of 1080 poison trails and Sue remembered the "disgusting smell" of dead rabbits.
In so doing - going from the worst to the best farm in the district - they increased the carrying capacity to about eight DSEs per hectare. So in retrospect "several neighbours wished they'd done what we did," Sue said
Sue said it was important that urban people and particularly migrants, understand the impact rabbits can have when numbers increase. "They need to be as aware as we in the country are," she said.
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David Palmer