A family of shepherds is turning their land on Flinders Island over to the Australian government for a total rewilding project that will see it become an “ark” for endangered marsupials.

The aptly named Woolford family has been pasturing sheep for the wool market since 1979 on Flinders, Australia’s 4th largest territorial island. Shifting prices during the early 2000s eventually made pasturing on the island too expensive, and the operations ceased very quickly, leaving behind a century of destructive changes.

Mr. Jonas Woolford’s vision is now to restore the island’s natural ecosystem, for which the state and federal governments have put together an AUD$4.8 million rewilding project that will look to eradicate the introduced rats, cats, and mice.

First charted in 1802 by explorer Matthew Flinders, the roughly 8,800-acre island was abundant in marsupials, which Flinders described as “miniature kangaroos.” The tammar wallaby and southern brown bandicoot lived on the island, but they all died out as wave after wave of human visitors saturated the island with invasive species.

“There’s black rats which came off of the Kapara shipwreck in 1942 when it ran aground,” Mr. Woolford told ABC News Australia. “Even from 1826, when the sealer Bill Bryant was out there … we know that he was hunting the wallabies along with the seal skins.”

Woolford added that mice came later, and sheep farmers who worked on the island before the Woolfords probably brought the cats to hunt the rodents, which ended up hunting the bandicoots and lizards as well. Camera traps have put the number of feral cats at around 180 – 210 on the island.

The multi-million rewilding project is slated to begin in May—outside normal seabird nesting season. Helicopters will drop poisoned rodent chow while drones will sweep the island with thermal vision seeking the cats. Experts from New Zealand and Tasmania are coming in to help on the project.

The island will have to be confirmed free of invasive species for a year before endangered wallabies and bandicoots will be returned, where they can breed unmolested by the mainland’s invasive species.

Unlike other infested islands, 75% of Flinders is still covered by native vegetation, and the project members are excited to see what will happen when these are allowed to recolonize in peace.

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“We should actually see a real rebound in native species such as invertebrates and insects, reptile species, and the shorebirds,” said Woolford. “Hopefully, it might be like it was back in February 1802 when Matthew Flinders and his crew first landed on Flinders Island.”

Already a National Marine Park, Flinders is seen as a major ecotourism opportunity along South Australia state’s coastline.

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“The Flinders Island Safe Haven project is vital because there are few places in Australia which provide such a unique opportunity for us to protect our important native wildlife as we strive for zero extinctions,” Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek told ABC.

GNN has reported extensively on the successes across the world in island rewilding. Conservationists have more than a decade of documented success stories eradicating invasive animals like rats and mice, and hundreds of species across dozens of islands around the world are benefiting from this trend.