Ambitious conservation effort returns iconic species to West Australian island

An island off the coast of West Australia (WA) is set to have some of Australia's most iconic species reintroduced into its ecosystem.

Dirk Hartog Island, WA's biggest island named after the Dutch explorer who discovered it in 1616, will be home to wallabies. bandicoots and a host of other iconic Australian species for the first time in decades following a WA government conservation initiative.

The island, which was used as private pastoral property and base for the fishing and pearling industries since 1860, was acquired by the WA Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPAW) in 2009 who set out to make it a national park.

Having spent much of the seven years since the land acquisition wiping out invasive species' on the island, mainly feral cats and goats, the project has now been granted 17 million U.S. dollars to reintroduce the native animals.

The rufous hare-wallabies and banded hare-wallabies will be the first species introduced closely followed by the chuditch, mulgara, greater stick-nest rat, desert mouse, Shark Bay mouse, health mouse, western barred bandicoot, woylie, dibbler and boodie.

Albert Jacob, WA's Environment Minister, described the project as Australia's most ambitious animal reconstruction effort.

"The long-term goal is to return the Dirk Hartog ecosystem back to the ecosystem that Dirk Hartog himself would have found when he first hit the Australian mainland, 400 years ago this month," Jacob told the ABC on Sunday.

Jacob said that aerial culling, baiting and trapping was used to eradicate 7,500 goats and feral cats.

"The main reason that we have lost the species has been the feral cats, and we've been progressively removing all of the feral cats from the island. I think that is the single largest area of Australia that will be cat-free when we have succeeded," he said.

Jacob said he hopes the project will bring greater tourism to the Shark Bay region, approximately 900 km north of Perth. Endit