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he has
Supermyx bombs planted in every country; as a demonstration of power, he wipes out the entire populations of two countries who refuse to stop warring with each other. This results in total nuclear disarmament, the exile of all nuclear physicists to a doomed island, and an eventual end to conventional warfare. Wars are soon conducted as harmless arena games which are heavily promoted like the Olympics. Fitzgerald has all weapon factories shut down, but this quickly threatens the world economy, so he decrees the factories continue producing weapons of warfare, which are then summarily dumped into the ocean. Surprisingly, Fitzgerald's seemingly ridiculous plans actually work: world peace finally becomes a reality for three years.
171:, Fitzgerald tasks Professor Welch and his scientists with inventing super myxomatosis, or Supermyx, to control the growing rabbit population. They test the first batch of Supermyx on a male and female rabbit, with disastrous results: Supermyx does not kill rabbits, and merely makes them savage, as if infected with rabies. Supermyx is, however, instantly lethal to humans, as demonstrated when Sir Alfred is brutally killed by the test cases, which then escape and turn the entire rabbit brood into flesh-rending Supermyx carriers.
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population. The rabbits eventually become too numerous to contain, and
Australia wages a one-sided war against the numberless brood. Fitzgerald is killed, and the entire continent is evacuated, leaving Australia to the aborigines, who eventually summon a flood to destroy the rabbits. The novel ends with the implication that the remaining Supermyx bombs will be detonated, wiping humanity from the face of the earth.
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Wealthy landowner, habitual blackmailer, and the story's catalyst. After discovering oil on his property he used his wealth to dominate two boroughs (pocket boroughs), which won
Fitzgerald the last election by a two-seat majority. When rabbits begin spawning on his property, Alfred threatens to use
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In a temporary lapse of brilliance, Sir Alan Jacks suggests that
Fitzgerald weaponize Supermyx and conquer the world. Fitzgerald does just that: after nuking the Bludgerton property to prevent the rabbit outbreak (and having the scientists committed so that word of the threat never comes to light),
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The pulp narrative was played for laughs, and designed as an indictment of war, nationalism and capitalism. The novel was also notable as being part of a small revival of
Australian science fiction in the 1960s. Its comic-horror tone was well received and a movie version was released in 1972 titled
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As
Supermyx cannot travel across bodies of water, Australia is completely safe from its own superweapons; however, the Supermyx-carrying Bludgerton Rabbits (now giant from atomic radiation) refuse to go away, and keep resurfacing time and again, threatening to overwhelm Australia and wipe out its
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Initially normal rabbits infesting Sir Alfred's
Bludgerton property, they become savage plague-carriers when infected with Supermyx. They are the only thing that threatens Australia's total world dominance, and each time they resurface, they are larger, nastier, and more numerous.
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Sir Alfred – who engineered
Fitzgerald's election to prime minister – calls Fitzgerald one evening with a complaint: his Bludgerton property has been infested with rabbits that are immune to
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Notoriously incompetent
Minister of Defence whose predictions are always wrong, except for one temporary lapse of brilliance when he suggests using Supermyx as a world-dominating weapon.
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Son of
Ladyill and Sir Alfred. Military man in the Australian army. Unlike the Minister of Defence, Gary is a highly competent and very effective leader.
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Welch's second-in-command, who becomes a hunted fugitive, and later becomes Fitzgerald's last hope at defeating the deadly rabbits.
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the same trick to lose Fitzgerald the next election if he can't find a way to get rid of the rabbits.
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run amok in Australia while the Prime Minister uses a new superweapon to dominate the planet.
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Prime Minister of Australia, and the novel's protagonist. An archetypal scheming politician.
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Braddon said he wrote the book "as a joke" and says it took him four weeks to complete.
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328:. Vol. 39, no. 52/53. Australia. 24 May 1972. p. 29
356:. Vol. 32, no. 19. Australia. 7 October 1964. p. 7
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Wife of Sir Alfred, who Fitzgerald was once infatuated with.
300:. International, Australia. 12 January 1973. p. 21
265:Russell Blackford; Van Ikin; Sean McMullen (1999),
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348:"Braddon calls his new book "a giggle""
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188:Kevin Sean Aloysius "Ella" Fitzgerald:
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428:Australian novels adapted into films
271:, Bloomsbury Academic, p. 104,
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320:"JANET LEIGH AND THE ANGRY RABBITS"
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353:The Australian Women's Weekly
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194:Major General Sir Alan Jacks:
20:The Year of the Angry Rabbit
16:1964 novel by Russell Braddon
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388:Part Three 4 November 1964
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384:Part Two 28 October 1964
380:Part One 21 October 1964
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137:, in which giant mutant
443:Novels set in Australia
237:The Bludgerton Rabbits:
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403:1964 Australian novels
268:Strange Constellations
292:"MAN-EATING RABBITS"
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167:. Fearing another
148:Night of the Lepus
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397:Categories
252:References
244:Background
219:Dr Miller:
183:Characters
131:Australian
360:22 August
332:22 August
304:22 August
101:Australia
81:Heinemann
77:Publisher
47:Language
159:Summary
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61:novel,
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118:180 pp
67:horror
63:Satire
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362:2020
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