Forget Married At First Sight. In the hills east of Melbourne, matchmaking is going on in which participants viciously turn on one another, dance, swap lovers and give birth – and the future of their species is at stake.

It seems a winning formula for the program, which just concluded its 30th season with a bang.

The helmeted honeyeater captive breeding program started in 1989 when there were only 50 of Victoria's bird emblem left.

Once common, the bird's population crashed due to the destruction and fragmentation of its habitat.