Getting Here

In 1616, Dirk Hartog stepped onto an island in pristine condition. The Malgana people know it as Wirruwana, and it is Western Australia’s largest island. From the 1860’s, sheep, goats, feral cats and weeds changed all of that — grazing out the vegetation, hunting native animals to local extinction, and unravelling an entire ecosystem.

Then came Return to 1616: the project that has spent more than a decade undoing the damage. Dirk Hartog Island is now the largest island in the world to be cleared of feral cats, goats and sheep. With the predators
gone, the island’s lost animals are coming home — ten native species, from the Shark Bay bandicoot to the woylie, alongside the banded and rufous hare-wallaby.

You’re not just visiting that story. You’re driving through it.

These animals are rare — some are extinct in the wild on mainland Australia — and their numbers here are still building. They use the same tracks you’ll drive on. How you pack, how you drive, and how you tread will shape whether they make it.

So before you cross on the barge, we ask every BYO 4WD guest to pledge:

• I’ll check my vehicle, trailer and gear for seeds, geckos, rats and
  other hitchhikers before I leave home — because biosecurity starts in my own driveway, not at the barge.
• I’ll stay on marked tracks, slow down, and avoid driving dusk to dawn when possible — so the species recovering have room to thrive.
• I’ll bring everything I need and take everything I bring — no BYO firewood, no rubbish left behind, and fully self-sufficient for water, fuel and supplies.

This is the only island of its kind. Help us keep it that way — for the animals, and for the people who’ll cross on the barge long after us.