Why were cats brought to Australia?

Answer 1

The feral cat was not introduced as a feral cat, they evolved from domestic cats that escaped domesticity and went to the wild. In the wild they revert very quickly back to their natural instincts for survival.

The same applies to feral dogs, pigs, goats and horses.

Cats were a standard fixture on sailing ships to keep rats and mice under control. The domestic cat arrived with the First Fleet and possibly much earlier on the ships of explorers and as the survivors of shipwrecks.

There is evidence to suggest that domestic cats arrived in Australia long before the First Fleet. It would appear that the Macassan traders who sought trepang (sea slugs) off Australia's northern coast some 500 years before the First Fleet had ships' cats, some of which stayed behind in Australia when the ships moved on. Naturally, these cats turned feral once they had to fend for themselves, and with no natural predators in Australia, their population proliferated rather well.

Answer 2

Cats were known by the Australian Aborigines before the first Europeans settled in Australia and, during the first years of settlement, were seen in parts of Australia where Europeans had not yet settled. They first arrived with 17th Century Dutch shipwrecks and with Macassan traders, but because they arrived before written records, reasons for their arrival are not known. It is surmised that they were used for catching rats on board the traders' ships.

Answer 3

 The introduction of cats to Australia are around 1804 and that cats first became feral around Sydney by 1820. In the early 1900s, concern was expressed at the pervasiveness of the cat problem. The feral cat was not introduced as a feral cat, they evolved from domestic cats that escaped domesticity and went to the wild. In the wild they revert very quickly back to their natural instincts for survival.