It has been more than a century since bilbies, bandicoots and burrowing bettongs roamed freely across outback New South Wales.
Their local extinction here and throughout most of Australia's mainland was due to cats, foxes and rabbits.
But now they are back and breeding.
Beginning in 2016, the Wild Deserts project aimed to reintroduce seven locally extinct native species to an area in the north-west corner of NSW.
They included crest-tailed mulgaras, stick-nest rats, western quolls and Shark Bay bandicoots, formerly known as western barred bandicoots.
"The idea is to turn back the tide of extinction," says principal ecologist Bec West, "giving these species a chance to come back and turn our deserts back into a really healthy place."
But before it could get off the ground, Wild Deserts, based in Sturt National Park, needed the right people running it.
That is where Bec and her husband, Reece Pedler, stepped in.
The couple had been working on threatened species and conservation in South Australia.
"We thought, 'Maybe we'll apply as a double act and see how it goes,'" Reece says.
They were exactly what Wild Deserts team leader Richard Kingsford was looking for.
Both were trained scientists, working in arid areas and had PhDs.
"It was a great opportunity, this young couple with amazing talents … able to love living where they are," he says.
For the species to survive, the team first needed to build two 2,000-hectare fenced-off exclosures to keep predators out.
And then remove any predators from inside the enclosures.
"Before the fence was even finished, we started mapping all the rabbit warrens, about 1,000 … on foot with a little conservation detector dog," Reece says.
With the exclosures declared feral-free in early 2019, the first crest-tailed mulgaras and bilbies were released the following year.
Then came Shark Bay bandicoots, golden bandicoots, bettongs and western quolls.
As the top native predator, the quoll was a significant addition for Richard.
"They keep a cap on the sustainability of the herbivores," he says.
"If you just let these animals go for it within one of these safe havens, there's nothing to stop them building up their numbers and becoming unsustainable."
They are surrounded by a 100-square-kilometre "wild training zone", which contains a low density of feral cats.
It is where the native animals are eventually released.
Most of the species are "ecosystem engineers". Not only are they repopulating the desert, but they are bringing it back to life.
"[They] are … really good at turning over soil to look for their food and build their burrows," Bec says.
"All that soil turnover helps with plant growth."
Only one species, the stick-nest rat, couldn't adapt to the environment.
"They just did not do well here," Richard says.
David Damschke is the only other full-time staff member with Bec and Reece.
He spends most of his time tracking, trapping and checking the animals before preparing them for release outside the exclosures.
"We know that animals can live in a fence where there are no predators and nothing to worry them," he says.
"But getting them beyond the fence … where they can continue on their natural function and the ecological role, that would be the key part."
Killer cats
The biggest threat to introduced species is feral cats, which kill more than a billion Australian native animals a year.
"We've got the worst extinction record of any country in the world," Richard says.
"The combination of cats, foxes and too many rabbits basically obliterated many of these species from this landscape."
The team is hopeful the natives will develop better survival instincts to combat the threat of cats.
"They're going to be learning to listen when they're feeding [and] to look around them to make sure they've got really good safety," Bec says.
"All these skills sound like things they should innately know how to do, but they didn't evolve with cats and cats have different hunting strategies."
"These animals have got to learn what this predator is and what it's capable of … to avoid it."
It is what sets the project apart from native species sanctuaries.
"There's a whole range of feral-free safe havens across Australia, but there are only a few places where there's this work going on trying to expose native animals to feral predators and to train them," Reece says.
"Wild Deserts and Arid Recovery are the only two I'm aware of."
Richard acknowledges they are still trying to find the right balance.
"We're still not sure that we've got the right formula … but we're getting better at it," he says.
The team is seeing positive signs following the release of dozens of bilbies, bettongs, golden bandicoots and quolls in the wild training zone.
"We're seeing survival, we're seeing breeding, we're seeing new individuals joining that population that's living beyond the fence," Bec says.
"All of those are really exciting indicators."
Community connections
Throughout most of the past decade, Bec and Reece have been determined to engage the community in Wild Deserts.
It is one of the criticisms pastoralists across western New South Wales have levelled at the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.
"We find it really important to have … all these kids and families in this region involved in this place," Reece says.
"Even though it's a remote place, there's a great little community here."
The couple see the community involvement as one of their greatest achievements.
"I'm constantly surprised at just how excited some of these people, who I didn't think would be so much into this, are wanting to be involved," Reece says.
"Successful conservation projects need to involve the local community," Bec says.
"[And to] make sure that they have the opportunity to engage with the project and understand why you're doing it but also get something from it."
The couple are raising three children, all born since the pair moved to Fort Grey, a former grazing property in Sturt National Park, in 2017.
"It was just the two of us, and that's nice, but it's a bit lonely," Bec says.
"So over the last few years we have built a workforce who are all mini ecologists … we hope."
Future guaranteed
Until recently, the funding for the next 10 years of Wild Deserts was not assured.
But in late June, NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe signed off on a new agreement.
"It's really important for the future that we take responsibility for what we do now, being able to restore these landscapes," Ms Sharpe says.
"Spending time with the people who are doing this work, seeing their dedication and seeing these animals being released and now breeding … [has been] one of the highlights of my time as the minister."
Over the past 10 years, Reece says climatic conditions have been in their favour.
In the project's early years, drought conditions made it easier to find and eliminate feral pests.
Above-average rainfall in recent years has provided food, cover, and protection for native species, helping their numbers grow inside and outside the exclosures.
"If we could've ordered the climatic conditions … we would've ordered it just like it's happened," Reece says.
"We're definitely in a boom in the desert at the moment … some of that is due to really good seasonal conditions but some of that is due to our restoration work," Bec says.
"For me, as a conservation biologist, it's incredibly rewarding to be able to watch this restoration process unfold in front of my eyes."
Recent heavy rainfall has highlighted the impact of these reintroduced species, with booming flora.
"Because every tiny digging pit … has collected seeds … has collected water … we're seeing really, really good plant growth," Bec says.
"There's quite a difference between where we have the animals and where we don't."
National Parks area manager Jaymie Norris's staff have noticed a significant difference too.
"Undoubtedly there have been changes in the environment," Jaymie says.
"You find a lot of plant species … that are rarer to come across in other parts of the park."
While the changes can be subtle, Jaymie says there is certainly a shift.
"Literally at a landscape scale you can start to see the difference," he says.
Further expansion
According to Bec, the project has surpassed initial expectations.
"We've got the largest rabbit-free area … 4,000 hectares … we've returned six native species … and we've also put four of those beyond the fence," she says.
The next decade's goals are shaping up to be even more ambitious, according to Bec.
"We're going to be in a really fantastic position to provide a giant landscape experiment," she says, "where we can really understand how to do this restoration properly and how to do it at scale.
"Especially beyond the fence and really inform future conservation strategies across Australia."
It could include neighbouring pastoral properties and other national parks.
"I would like to start seeing how we might be able to return bilbies to other places where people are interested in seeing that sort of ecosystem restoration process," Bec says.
And while Reece acknowledges Australia will never be rid of feral predators, their goal is a landscape where natives can survive their threat.
"We need to try and breed smarter native species that can tolerate these animals and survive in a modern-day arid Australia," he says.
"How do we get these animals to take back the desert, to reinvade the places they used to be?" Richard says.
"We're still early days here … but it is a really tremendously exciting journey."
The hope is this precious desert ecosystem will be restored for generations to come.
"I hope that we are leaving something that in future generations they'll be able to look back on and be like, 'Wow, those guys did a really epic job, thank God someone did something about it,'" Bec says.
"So that we're not just reading in history books about all the animals that once went extinct and are no longer here.
"If we can work out some of the recipes for how to do this in different places, we might be able to change the future of conservation for a lot of these species."
Credits
- Reporting, digital production, photography and drone footage: Bill Ormonde
- Additional supplied photography: UNSW/Richard Freeman