Australia's endangered brush-tailed rock wallaby is often difficult to spot in the wild, living in remote areas around rocky outcrops lining the Great Dividing Range.
The marsupial faces numerous threats, mainly predation from feral pests and more recently, loss of habitat to bushfires.
A breeding program to ensure the species doesn't become extinct, and create an "insurance population", started four years ago at conservation organisation Aussie Ark's Barrington Tops facility on the NSW Mid North Coast.
The program has been hailed a success and this week Aussie Ark officially opened six new wallaby breeding enclosures, each designed to house one breeding pair.
Aussie Ark managing director Tim Faulkner said the program's expansion came after years of hard work and marked another "giant leap" for the organisation, as well as the future of the brush-tailed rock wallaby.
"Five years ago, we built the half a dozen or so of the first rock wallaby enclosures, we have since bred a significant amount, so we needed more enclosures," Mr Faulkner said.
"Brushtails are found from south-east Queensland all the way down to Victoria, along the Great Dividing Range.
"The Victorian populations are all but locally extinct, in the southern parts of NSW they have vastly disappeared, northern NSW they are still clinging in there.
"They are an incredible little wallaby so close to where most Australians live, that needs all the attention it can get."
The breeding program has received financial support from the federal government.
Senior advisor with the federal office of the Threatened Species Commissioner, Kerry Cameron, said the program was "critically important".
"Brush-tailed rock wallabies have important biodiversity values and cultural values, and we just can't afford to lose this natural, cultural heritage from Australia," Dr Cameron said.
"Once this species has gone we can't get it back."
Valued conservation tool
Mr Faulkner said some wallabies had been released into the facility's sanctuary area, and the long-term goal was to release some back into the wild.
He said Aussie Ark was a "critical tool" in the conservation of the species.
"The best way to look at us is as a critical halfway house," he said.
"We don't want the only place to see rock wallabies to be at Aussie Ark, the overarching goal is to keep them in the wild.
"By creating the insurance populations, we can prevent extinction, preserve genetics and breed our wallabies to release back to wild projects where there is better feral fox and cat control, that is the long-term goal."
The opening of the new breeding enclosures also included the arrival of a new brush-tailed rock wallaby male from Sydney's Featherdale Wildlife Park.
The male is considered to be prime breeding age and further expands the genetic pool of the breeding program.
"This is a very exciting day ... any exposure the wallabies and other endangered species can get, it's critical," Mr Faulkner said.
Pest control needed
Mr Faulkner said more work was needed to develop effective pest control programs, so wild releases were viable.
He said brush-tailed rock wallaby joeys were particularly vulnerable to feral cats and foxes.
"They live in really mountainous areas, away from people ... so the habitat is there, but it's overrun by feral pests," he said.
"When they have their joeys and the joey is too big for the pouch, mum leaves it up on a rock platform and goes off and feeds, and they are just sitting ducks — sitting wallabies — for foxes and cats.
"There's also competition within their range from feral goats and things like that ... the bushfires in 2020 also destroyed a lot of habitat.
"Australia doesn't have an effective solution to foxes and cats at this point in time ... in the future, who knows what can be done?"
