It’s the first rime for more than 100 years the bilbies have run wild in the NSW national park. They’ve been released into a specially fenced, predator-free area of the park that encompasses 5800 hectares of the Pilliga State Conservation area, said Member for Barwon Kevin Humphries.

“To have them back in our national parks is a magnificent sight to see and a clear innovative step by this government, towards securing populations of threatened species,” Mr Humphries said.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo is also working on the conservation of the species. The zoo has developed a 110-hectare breeding sanctuary for the greater bilby.

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The greater bilbies bred in the sanctuary will be released into Sturt National Park in late 2019.

Environment Minister Gabrielle Upton said the bilbies were one of 13 regionally extinct mammals to be returned to the wild as part of a 10-year NSW government project. Bridled nail-tail wallabies, brush-tailed bettongs and numbats will also be released to select national parks in Western NSW through the $42.1 million program.

Bilbies disappeared from the wild in NSW in about 1910 because of predators like foxes and cats.