Australia's 'Native Cat' Has Returned — 63 Years After Going Extinct on the Mainland

In 1963, Australia officially declared the eastern quoll extinct on the mainland. The culprit: the red fox, introduced by European settlers in the late 1800s, which quietly hunted down one of Australia's most distinctive small predators until none remained outside Tasmania. For six decades, the spotted, cat-sized marsupial — once called the 'native cat' for its bold personality and predatory instincts — existed on the Australian mainland only in memory. Now it's back. Conservationists from the South-West Eastern Quoll Hub, a partnership between the Nature Glenelg Trust and three local agricultural businesses in Victoria's Grampians region, have confirmed that eastern quolls are breeding successfully inside a protected pastoral property near Dunkeld — the first confirmed wild births on the mainland in over 60 years. The program began in earnest in 2022, when a predator-proof fence was constructed around a 95-hectare free-range enclosure at Mount Sturgeon, near Dunkeld. Simultaneously, an intensive fox eradication program swept the surrounding area, making the landscape hostile to the very predator that caused the quoll's extinction. Three pregnant females from Tasmania were released into the enclosure first. Two males were added the following year to improve genetic diversity. Then the biologists waited. The results exceeded expectations. The most recent survey trapped and re-released 27 individual eastern quolls inside the enclosure. Of those, 19 — 12 males and 7 females — were confirmed to have been born in the wild, on mainland Australian soil, for the first time in living memory. "It's early stages, but it's fair to say it's a successful introduction, absolutely," said Kai Dailey, conservation manager for one of the partner businesses. "The survey showed the programme is working incredibly well." The team has carefully maintained an almost 50-50 sex ratio among the population, giving the colony the best chance of continued growth. Critically, the fence keeps foxes out. The quolls can do the rest. Eastern quolls come in two colour variants — black and fawn — and are ferocious hunters of insects, small mammals, and carrion. In healthy ecosystems, they play a vital role in controlling pest populations and cycling nutrients through the soil. This is one return that was a long time coming. And for the Grampians, the 'native cat' is home again. 🐾