Locally extinct brush-tailed bettongs brought back to Northern Territory wildlife sanctuary

Woylies weigh about 1 kilogram and have a long, curly tail that they use to carry grasses and other materials to make their nests.  (Supplied: Brad Leue)

Brush-tailed bettongs are being reintroduced to the Northern Territory after being locally extinct for at least 60 years. 

Also known as woylies, 44 of the small marsupials — 22 females and 22 males — arrived on charter planes this week  and were released at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, 360 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs in remote central Australia. 

Woylies were once widespread across the Northern Territory and many other parts of the country, but their population has been devastated by feral cats and foxes.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC) ecologist Kirsten Skinner said the release was a "huge milestone". 

"[It was] a thrill for the team at Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary to have such an extraordinary opportunity to make history and reintroduce a locally extinct species back into the ecosystem," Ms Skinner said. 

Two charter planes carried the 70 woylies from Western Australia's Wheatbelt to Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary, north-west of Alice Springs.  (Supplied: Australian Wildlife Conservancy)

To mark its 30th year of conservation work, the AWC flew the woylies from Mount Gibson Wildlife Sanctuary in Western Australia and released them in a 9,400-hectare feral-predator-free zone north-west of Alice Springs. 

Protected from cats and foxes, the woylies will now have an opportunity to survive and grow in numbers.  

Numbers of woylies declined across Australia after European settlement but it is hoped they will re-establish in central Australia.  (Supplied: Brad Leue)

'Ecosystem engineers'

With four, strong paws, woylies dig up the landscape to find food such as bush potatoes and other kinds of tubers. 

"Having them back here at Newhaven is a real boon, not just for having the species here but also then helping them to improve the ecosystem to the benefit of all the species that we have here on the property."

Staying alive

Ecologists hope the 70 marsupials released near Alice Springs will deliver the first generation of locally bred woylies in more than a century. 

Some of the animals were fitted with tracking collars and camera traps were set up to monitor how they adapted to their new environment. 

Small populations of woylies exist in the wild in south-west Western Australia. (Supplied: Brad Leue)

Less than 15,000 woylies remain in the wild and almost 10 per cent of the surviving population across the world is protected by AWC within feral-predator-proof fenced areas at sanctuaries in Western Australia, South Australia and now the Northern Territory. 

The AWC has planned further reintroduction of woylies to a feral-free haven at Mallee Cliffs National Park in New South Wales later this year.