A small chick has been discovered on a rugged Australian offshore island and it has sent a ripple of excitement through wildlife conservationists.

Key points: A Gould's petrel chick has been discovered on Broughton Island for the first time in a decade

A Gould's petrel chick has been discovered on Broughton Island for the first time in a decade It comes after a pest removal program on the island and the installation of nest boxes and speakers which play petrel calls

It comes after a pest removal program on the island and the installation of nest boxes and speakers which play petrel calls The breeding success is seen as a positive sign for the future of the threatened Gould's petrel species

For the first time in a decade there is evidence Gould's petrels have bred on Broughton Island, north-east of Port Stephens in New South Wales.

The successful breeding of the threatened species comes after a long-term conservation project which started with the removal of pests on the island by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) more than 10 year ago.

It's hoped the petrels will continue to breed on the pest-free Broughton Island. ( Supplied: Department of Planning, Industry and Environment )

NPWS ranger Susanne Callaghan was among those who recently discovered the chick in one of the island's specially-installed nest boxes.

"So essentially two adults have done the deed in one of our artificial nest boxes, which is really fabulous, they have incubated the egg adequately and we've had a chick hatch on the island," Ms Callaghan said.

"It's really exciting after more than a decade's worth of work."

Speakers help lure seabirds to pest-free island

The work started in 2009 when the NPWS eradicated all the vertebrate pests off the island including house mice, rats, and rabbits.

"They were having a huge impact on the ecology of the island and particularly seabird habitat and their ability to breed," Ms Callaghan said.

"In the 10 years since, the island has been recovering. Seabird habitat has been slowly expanding and the vegetation changing."

Broughton Island is part of the Myall Lakes National Park and pests were removed from the island in 2009. ( Supplied: NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service )

The second step in the process was the installation in 2017 of nest boxes and large solar-powered speakers on the island.

The speakers play recordings of Gould's petrels and white-faced storm petrels each night in a bid to lure the birds in to breed.

"We thought about assisting the process and knew Gould's petrels were in low numbers on the island, so we put in the sound system which plays their calls with nest boxes nearby," Ms Callaghan said.

"It was a slow start. Nothing realty happened for a year or so.

"Last year we had adult birds utilising the nest boxes, which was really exciting, and then this year we've gone an extra step and have adults utilising the nest boxes and producing a successful chick."

Large solar-powered speakers play seabird calls next to specially-designed nest boxes. ( Supplied: Mick Roderick )

Broughton Island 'insurance population'

The conservation project has been a collaboration between the NPWS, the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment, the Hunter Bird Observers Club, and Birdlife Australia, and was supported through funds raised during the 2016 Twitchathon.

Mick Roderick of Birdlife Australia and the Hunter Bird Observers Club said the evidence of Gould's petrels breeding on Broughton Island was an encouraging sign for the future of the species.

NPWS rangers working on Broughton Island. ( Supplied: Susanne Callaghan )

"It's amazing, it wasn't that long ago that we only had Gould's petrels breeding on only one island, Cabbage Tree Island, also in the Port Stephens area," he said.

"Things can go wrong on islands very quickly — bushfires for example, storms, predators getting onto the island — so as an insurance policy it's always very important to make sure birds are breeding on multiple islands.

"Now we have Gould's petrels breeding on at least four islands."

Gould's petrel populations were previously under threat from introduced species like rabbits and rats. ( Supplied: Allan Richardson )

Ms Callaghan said there was evidence the species was expanding its breeding range to Montague Island off Narooma on the South Coast.

She said they would continue to monitor the nest boxes and the program would possibly expand in coming years.

"We have six nest boxes and three in use at the moment, so we will see what happens in the next few years," she said.

"We might expand and see if we can find a few more sites to put in some more nest boxes."