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Foxes were introduced into Australia initially for the purpose of recreational fox-hunting. Australia's roots were British, a country where fox-hunting had been carried out for hundreds of years, but the only "sport" that hunters had was dingoes and kangaroos. Bringing foxes to the new country enabled them to still indulge their sport of fox-hunting.

The European red fox was first released in the Geelong area near Melbourne in 1845. More were introduced after 1845 as a method for controlling the introduced hare problem. It was given time to breed, which it did prolifically with no natural predators on the continent, and fox-hunting started within a couple of decades.

Foxes reached Queensland by 1910, and by the following year were also sighted in Western Australia. As to how it came, it was, of course, brought over by ship as there was no other alternative for making sea-crossings.

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13y ago

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