More than 70 bandicoots have travelled some 400 kilometres from Hamilton, on Victoria's mainland, to the safe haven of French Island in Western Port Bay.

Key points: A long-held plan to release the near-extinct eastern barred bandicoot into the wild has come to fruition

A long-held plan to release the near-extinct eastern barred bandicoot into the wild has come to fruition More than 70 carefully selected specimens have been released onto French Island, with no deaths recorded so far

More than 70 carefully selected specimens have been released onto French Island, with no deaths recorded so far The island was selected because it is not home to foxes, which have devastated the sub-species

The eastern barred bandicoots have been considered extinct in the wild on mainland Australia for almost three decades, existing only behind predator-proof fencing — but now the small marsupial has been returned to the wild.

Department of Environment Land Water and Planning Natural Environment Program Officer Richard Hill said the species was being introduced to an entirely new location this month.

"This is an unusual thing … and the reason we've chosen [it] is that French Island is fox free," Mr Hill said.

"Foxes are the biggest threat by far — bandicoots basically can't exist in the presence of foxes."

So far so good

Since the first release of 56 bandicoots on the island earlier this month there have been no deaths, and this week another 18 will arrive at the new home.

A mixture of female — some with pouch young — and male bandicoots were selected from the enclosed reintroduction site at the Hamilton Community Parklands for the program.

"They've got to be over 400 grams, so close to being adult size, and less than 12 months old," Mr Hill said.

"It's a busy time of year for bandicoots in the breeding sense … which is also the ideal time to move them."

Females with pouch young older than three weeks were not eligible.

More than 70 eastern barred bandicoots have been released onto French Island this month. ( Supplied: Zoos Victoria )

Unique sub-species

Mr Hill said the bandicoots were once found throughout grasslands in south-west Victoria, but since European settlement almost all of their habitat had been destroyed.

Though related to Tasmania's bandicoots, this sub-species is unique to Victoria and it is hoped this program is one of the final steps to securing the survival of the species.

"The aim of conservation is to allow animals to continue to thrive in the wild," Mr Hill said.

"And to do that they have to be living in sufficient numbers [so] that natural selection can act on them."

The program was trialled on Churchill Island before a release on Phillip Island.

French Island is the third and final release.

"This release is the second last of the actions of a number of things we've done in the last 15 years to secure this bandicoot," Mr Hill said.

About 9,000 hectares of the 18,000-hectare island makes for suitable habitat, and it is hoped the population might grow to several thousand.

Monitoring the marsupials

Thirty-three of the bandicoots released on French Island have radio-tracking transmitters attached to their tails to provide data on their locations and survival.

"The transmitter is fitted to the base of the tail with surgical tape and the little antenna goes along the tail, with a special receiver to work out where they go during the day, where they are at night, whether they're still alive or not," Mr Hill said.

The first year will involve fairly intensive monitoring while the marsupials become established.

"After those transmitters fall off [in the first few weeks] we'll replace that with a trapping program which we hope will document their survival, breeding, establishment and expansion across the island," Mr Hill said.

It's understood 9,000 hectares on French Island will be suitable for the bandicoots to nest and forage. ( Supplied: Zoos Victoria )

Appointing guardians

Zoos Victoria Threatened Species biologist, Dr Amy Coetsee, said the plan to introduce bandicoots to French Island has been in place for 12 years.

"It was like nothing was working, we kept trying the fenced sites, but they kept collapsing because of issues keeping them fox free," she said.

"[It was like], 'where can we put them?'

"We probably had about 100 bandicoots left of the mainland sub-species.

"The key to what enabled us to do the release is the ongoing feral cat control that's been happening on the island since 2010."

Ms Coetsee said about 120 people live on the island permanently, and the community has played a significant part in the program's introduction.

"On [October 11] when we did the main release we invited the community to be a part of it, so it was the community that was carrying bandicoots into the release sites," she said.