![]() ![]() ![]() Much copied by competitors, the traps remained in production until 1960. Hundreds of thousands were turned out by the company and used around the country. The Lane’s ‘Ace’ design became the benchmark trap for rabbiting in Australia. After testing different steel, spring and pressure combinations, the ‘Ace’ trap came to fruition in 1935. company in Newcastle, New South Wales in 1919. National Library of Australia nla.pic-vn4667097Īt the end of the First World War (1914-18), demand in Australia for traps was so great that Lane moved his rabbit trap production half a world away, establishing the Henry Lane (Australia) Ltd. buildings and staff, Newcastle, New South Wales, about 1928. Established in Wednesfield, England in 1844, throughout the nineteenth century the Henry Lane Ltd company produced a wide range of metal animal traps (along with some man traps, primarily for use on private estates where poaching was a problem). Improvements in steel quality and production methods in the 1800s saw development of a diverse variety of styles for use on all manner of mammals, many models prompted by the growing trade in fur for fashion. By the 1700s, the design had resolved into a form similar to traps used in the 1900s. Įarly diagrams for a metal spring-jaw trap had been published in England in the late 1500s. Eggleton in his study of rabbiting in Victoria. ‘They should’a put a pair o’ bloody wheels on ‘em’ – was the recollection of one trapper recorded by G.B. ![]() New designs proved too heavy for commercial trapping in Australia as rabbiters often worked in isolated locations and over larger areas. Initial attempts to develop traps specifically for the Australian market based on British models fell short of the mark. Unlike rabbits, imported British-made traps did not particularly suit Australian conditions. Eggleton, Last of the Lantern Swingers, 1982.Īs rabbit populations in southern Australia surged from the 1870s, demand for traps likewise increased. Light, strong, fast, rust-resistant, it could be exposed to the elements for months, mislaid and left, then brought back into use immediately. ![]() It embodied all the features brought about by trial and error. T was Lane that produced the near perfect machine, the ‘Lane’s Ace’. The National Museum’s collections contain a number of well-used traps, including this Lane’s ‘Ace’ trap, specially designed for use in Australia. By the 1970s, when animal welfare legislation banning serrated steel-jaw leg-hold traps started being introduced, millions of traps had seen action – and rabbits – around the country. Besides potential victims, prospective trappers had only a few basic needs: a trap, a hoe or setting stick, patience, and the ability to kill, prepare and transport captured animals. Rabbits were plentiful and trapping looked on as a simple way to convert a problem into something useful: money, a hot dinner or furred garment. Rabbit trapping helped sustain many Australians through tough times of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, providing livelihoods, extra income or food. This post is the second in a series co-developed by Jono Lineen and other curators that explores Australians’ experiences with rabbits through objects in the National Museum’s collections. ![]()
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