In 1907, the rabbit-proof fence was built in Western Australia between Cape Keraudren and Esperance to try to control the spread of the rabbit population from the east into Western Australian pastoral areas. Given that European rabbits can both jump very high and burrow underground, a perfectly intact fence stretching for hundreds of kilometres, and whose gates farmers or graziers did not leave open for livestock or machinery, was still unlikely to succeed. As such, the Number 1 Rabbit-Proof Fence, which was erected in 1901, failed to keep the rabbit population away from the protected area. Even after this large scale fence had failed, smaller scale fencing projects continued to make a successful appearance.