Four years after locally extinct mammals and birds were reintroduced from Barrow Island Nature Reserve to Hermite Island there are some very encouraging results. A conservation-introduced newcomer, the boodie, is also making incredible bounds on AlphaIsland.Our long-sleeved shirts and pants stick to us like wet dish rags, far from living up to their'breathable' sales claim. Nor are they 'tough' or 'protective' when matched against the dreaded spinifex grass spines that inevitably penetrate from every angle. But the reality of the harsh Pilbara sun and menacing vegetation does little to deter those who hunger to work on this beautiful island ark; those who long to contribute to history in the making by lending a helping hand as part of the Department of Parks and Wildlife's Western Shield fauna recovery program initiative - Montebello Renewal (see 'Montebello Renewal', LANDSCOPE, Summer 1996-97 and 'New island home', LANDSCOPE, Summer 2010-11). This project aims to right the wrongs of the past by re-establishing long-lost populations of animals with physiological characteristics and adaptive behaviours honed to this environment. They are, afterall, the rightful residents of the Montebello Islands.
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