UNDER the Bolte Bridge, a short hop from the city skyline, a bury of rabbits has built a home by the shops and apartment buildings. Pest controller Alex Krstic points out more than a dozen varmints in quick time, alongside burrows, dirt scratchings and droppings.

''The fact we're seeing them in broad daylight indicates there is a significant infestation,'' he says. ''Basically, there is a shitload of rabbits here.''

One of the rabbits living under the Bolte Bridge. Credit:Ken Irwin

Across the city they're breeding like the proverbial, chewing up native flora and damaging homes and gardens. The Department of Sustainability and Environment has warned of the risk of rabbit numbers rising rapidly in Melbourne due to high rainfall. Parks Victoria is running a $250,000 urban warren destruction program, while some councils are laying poisoned carrots about cricket ovals and cemeteries to combat the growing problem.

Rabbits have long been a pest in the country, costing more than $200 million a year in lost productivity and control measures. But now the pests are bounding about the big city, says Mr Krstic, a hobbyist hunter whose kills include a grizzly bear and some Siberian wolves.