In the sandhills surrounding one of Australia's most remote communities, bilby populations are stable, a stark contrast to dwindling numbers in other parts of the country.

Now a leading biologist says Kiwirrkurra's strong traditions of cat hunting and fire management are literally making the difference between life and death for the region's bilbies.

In the window of Kiwirrkurra's only shop, there's an unusual sign - an offer of $100 to catch and kill a feral cat.

"Over the last four years that we've been recording numbers, we're up to 100 cats. That's animals that people have either caught in their own time or caught on ranger trips," Kate Crossing from the Kiwirrkurra Indigenous Protection Authority said.

The catch and kill scheme is a partnership between wildlife experts and local trackers, who have been hunting cats for generations.

Traditional hunters have declared war on feral cats to save one of Australia's most threatened species. ( Supplied: Kate Crossing )

"Pussy cat been here a long time," community elder Jimmy Brown said.

"All the ladies go out in the bush ... to find the bush meat, and teaching the kids properly to hunt."

Surprisingly, Indigenous custodians and wildlife experts estimate cats have been living in Australia's Western Desert region even before the first European explorers arrived in the 19th century.

Dr Rachel Paltridge has studied bilbies for twenty years. ( Landline: Nick Hose )

"There's nowhere in the desert you can go without finding a cat track," wildlife ecologist Dr Rachel Paltridge said.

"Cats in the desert are completely independent of people. They're tough, cunning, ferocious animals that are killing native wildlife every day."

In the Western Desert, hunting is a prized skill, passed down from generation to generation.

"Kiwirrkurra is special. It's got a number of people who are still really skilled at hunting cat, it's a skill they've had ever since cats moved into the landscape, and they've been hunting them for food ever since," Ms Crossing said.

"I've tried pussy cat, it's a good meat, there's plenty of bush tucker round here," Mr Brown said.

There is a $100 reward for catching and killing a feral cat in Kiwirrkurra ( Supplied: Rachel Paltridge )

Leading the fight against feral cats is Yalti Napangati.

Ms Napangati is one of the Pintupi Nine, the last group of Aboriginal people to make contact with Europeans. Before contact she survived entirely off the land.

"We used to eat bush meat, we used to eat bush honey and kangaroo as well," Ms Napangati said.

In 1984, Ms Napangati and her siblings walked into Kiwirrkurra having never seen or spoken to a non-Indigenous person.

Yalti Napangati shows her grandson how to look for cat tracks in the desert sand by drawing them with her fingers ( Landline: Nick Hose )

Today, she is considered one of the best trackers in the country. Unsurprisingly, cats are hard to catch. There are not many animals that can survive in the harsh desert climate of Australia's most remote sandhill country.

Yet amongst the spinifex, cats are thriving.

"Cats have adapted to Australia's deserts, they can survive without water," Dr Paltridge said.

The native bilby is one animal under attack from feral cats. It once existed all over Australia but is now considered endangered. Today, Kiwirrkurra is one of the last homes of the bilby, or as locals call it, "Ninu".

To learn more about their behaviour and how to protect them, traditional owners in partnership with wildlife ecologists organised a "bilby camp" to teach local school children about bilbies and how to protect them.

School children on the bilby camp learn how to set up new bilby camera ( Landline: Nick Hose )

"It's important to pass knowledge from the old people to the young people," Ms Napangati said.

"Aboriginal people are worrying about the next generation not having as much knowledge about animals on their country, how to look after country, how to recognise tracks and signs," Ms Crossing said.

Around Australia the bilby is considered endangered, but Ms Crossing said the ranger program is helping to stabilise numbers in the Western Desert.

Calls for ranger programs and fences

Huge efforts are being made to protect bilbies around Australia. Earlier this year, Landline visited Newhaven in the Northern Territory, where a vast cat-proof enclosure is being built.

But Dr Rachel Paltridge said fences were not the only way to protect bilbies.

"While breeding bilbies behind fences might seem the safest thing to do, I think we need to be putting as many resources as we can into protecting wild bilby populations across the desert," Ms Paltridge said.

Ms Paltridge credits the Kiwirrkurra ranger program for helping to save bilbies from extinction.

"Supporting Aboriginal rangers to do fire management and cat hunting is probably the best thing we can do for bilby populations across the desert," she said.

"We're keeping bilbies in the wild, so they still have wild behaviours, and they're resilient to predators."

The ranger program also provides important employment opportunities.

Cat hunters in the Western Desert light the spinifex on fire to flush the feral cat out of hiding

"In remote areas where there's not a lot of work, Aboriginal people can do work that they're really good at," Ms Paltridge said.

That's something that has traditional owner Mr Brown pleased.

"The best hunters are here, in Kiwirrkurra. When it comes to the bush, we are a really strong people," Mr Brown said.

Learn more about this story on Landline at 12:30pm on Sunday.