"What about all those rabbits in the garden, won't it all look a bit ratty?" he said.

The Boat House By The Lake restaurant owner James Souter assured the couple that gardeners would repair the damage before the weekend.

Mr Souter recounted the couple's concern while admitting an outbreak of rabbits in Grevillea Park on Lake Burley Griffin's north-east foreshore had defeated his best efforts to eradicate the animals.

Appeals to the National Capital Authority and the ACT government's parks service had been unsuccessful.

From Kings Avenue bridge through Grevillea Park, past Clare Holland House and towards the Jerrabomberra wetlands, the rabbit population has exploded. Ginger rabbits, kitten rabbits and buck rabbits, which fight over does, have taken over the area. They are making fresh warrens, scratching mounds and dung hills.

Mr Souter said his gardeners were tired of repairing the garden beds.

A pest controller had no luck getting rid of them.

Mr Souter said ideal breeding conditions had lifted numbers and he was having second thoughts about a new landscaping project for the Boat House, fearful the rabbits would eat anything fresh in the ground.

NCA asset manager Peter Beutel said many people were concerned about the number of rabbits, which were hard to control because poison created risks for domestic animals and culling was unpopular.

"You upset as many people as you do if you don't [poison]. And it is pointless us doing our little bits in that corner without consultation and collaboration with the ACT government," he said. "The vast majority of Grevillea Park is owned by the ACT government. We own immediately along Kings Avenue and a little corner up the top.

"I think we are all willing to do it but there is no point in us killing our rabbits and not killing their rabbits, because they are all sort of interlinked."

Mr Beutel said the rabbits were not a high priority for either the Commonwealth or ACT agencies.

Of all the areas around the park, this would be the thickest infestation, he said.

For more than 20 years, rabbits had been sheltering in juniper beds in Kings Avenue Bridge abutments. [This rabbit harbour is featured on the ACT TAMS website's information on rabbits.]

Mr Beutel said the Department of Defence had culled rabbits some years ago on the other side of Parkes Way, spending a fortune on ripping out burrows to maximise effectiveness and replacing hedges around car parks at the Australian Defence Force Academy and Duntroon.

If the NCA did a similarly thorough cull, it would mean ripping out long-established plants, which would cost more to replace than the rabbit control.

He said about two years ago, landowners including the ANU, the National Museum of Australia, the ACT government and the NCA collaborated on eradicating rabbits on Acton Peninsula.

"That was quite effective but took an enormous amount of co-ordination. The poisoning was easy; the co-ordination soaked up a lot of man hours," he said.

Mr Beutel said the NCA would need to rely on the ACT Parks service's in-house expertise to tackle the job in Grevillea Park.

ACT city services manager of place management Jane Carder said the rabbits would be baited this autumn and the future of the juniper ground covers on NCA land would have to be reconsidered.

Night counts and quotes from contractors would be considered to ensure the best outcome.