Bilbies are roaming the south-west of NSW for the first time in more than a century after 30 of the marsupials were released into a section of Mallee Cliffs National Park, protected by the largest enclosure of its kind in the southern hemisphere.

Listed as extinct in NSW, the bilbies were raised in South Australia and transported to the arid national park 800 kilometres from Sydney, where they were released into a 9500-hectare “natural time capsule” on Wednesday evening.

One of 30 bilbies is released into the Mallee Cliffs National Park. Credit:AWC

The small marsupial disappeared from the wild in NSW around 1910 after its population was ravaged by feral cats and foxes following European settlement.

Australian Wildlife Conservancy chief executive Tim Allard said central Australia was turned into a “marsupial ghost town".