English: Rabbits were introduced to Australia by early European settlers, and by the 20th century has become a plague. They ravaged the country, destroying pastures, crops and native species. In the early 1930s Dame Jean Macnamara (and others) called for the importation of the myxoma virus as a means of control. Lionel Bull, Chief of the CSIR Division of Animal Health and Nutrition, released the first infected rabbits on the 16 November, 1937 on Wardang Island, South Australia. By the 1950s the deadly virus had caused an epidemic and killed off much of the wild rabbit population.