Rodd Island

Rodd Island is a 6,700-square-metre (0.67 ha) island on the Parramatta River in Sydney, Australia, It lies in the centre of Iron Cove, between the suburbs of Drummoyne, Russell Lea, Rodd Point, Haberfield and Leichhardt. It is located west of the Sydney Harbour upstream and the Harbour Bridge. Today the island is uninhabited, and forms part of the Sydney Harbour National Park. The island has had various other names over its history: Rabbit Island, Rhode Island, Snake Island and Jack Island.

The island is named after Brent Clements Rodd, who had a long association with the island and the local area. He first attempted to buy the island from the government in 1842. The Rodd family, who lived on the western shore of Iron Cove in what is now the suburb of Rodd Point, used the island for recreation. Rodd tried again to purchase the island in 1859 and even put down a deposit of 17 pounds on it. However, the transaction was never completed and the island eventually became part of the first public recreation reserve in Sydney Harbour in 1879. Despite being a solicitor, Rodd managed neither to purchase the island, nor to have his deposit refunded.

Between 1888 and 1894, the island was used as a laboratory by scientists working for the Pasteur Institute, who were researching the use of the chicken cholera microbe to control Australia's rabbit population. Louis Pasteur sent his nephew, Doctor Adrien Loir to conduct the experimentation in Australia and facilities were constructed on the island. Pasteur was interested because he had been conducting similar research in France and Henry Parkes had offered a 25,000 pound reward to anyone who could solve the rabbit infestation problem. However, the research received an unfavourable report in 1889 and from June, 1890, the facilities were used to manufacture sheep and cattle vaccines for anthrax and pleuro-pneumonia.

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