Dirk Hartog Island, Western Australia, welcomes back the hare-wallaby

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Way back in 1616, the Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog landed on the West Australian island which now bears his name. He was the first European to discover and land on the island off the Gascoyne coast of Western Australia. Before leaving he nailed a plate to a post, inscribing it with several names. Almost a century later, in 1772, French explorers stumbled across the island and in 1869, it become a pastoral lease and used for rearing sheep. At the time there were 13 species of ground-dwelling animals on the island but this was reduced to three when feral cats began decimating the native population. In 2009, Dirk Hartog Island was declared a national park. The aim was to return the island to its natural state before white settlement. It is 80 kms long and 15 kms at its widest point Because of its size, it was fenced into two portions before the huge task of eliminating cats, sheep and goats began. Now that the 63,000 hectares are free of introduced species, 140 rufous and banded hare-wallabies have been relocated to the island. Other species will soon follow. The island is also home to loggerhead turtles which lay their eggs in the sand there. There is a cute photo of a pair of banded hare-wallabies at this link: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-14/pair-of-released-hare-wallabies/10369654. My photo shows a quenda which will be one of the animals introduced at a later date.