Far from the places where mad egos rule, let us retreat this week to a place where modest people from both ancient and modern worlds have joined to recreate a woodland lush enough to welcome back a fierce and beautiful little animal that hovers near the edge of no return.

Far, too, from the terror of wars large and small, little planes are being used to “bomb” 400 hectares of Aboriginal land that sits on a volcanic lava flow known as Budj Bim, in remote south-west Victoria.

Troy Bentley from Air Apply drops clay balls full of seeds over the Budj Bim landscape in south-west Victoria. Credit:Budj Bim Rangers

The “bombs”, hundreds of thousands of them, are clay balls containing the seeds of native manna gum trees, which have all but disappeared from the tough volcanic landscape. Many of the manna gums that survived European farming practices in this area were swept away by a savage bushfire 12 years ago.

In these parts, outside the village of Tyrendarra, there once roamed and hunted - mostly at night, mostly in manna forests - a handsome creature known as the spotted-tail quoll, or tiger quoll.