Remote family treasures its desert schooling

The Pedler children's backyard is 3253 square kilometres of wild, red desert and is home to 67 species of reptile and NSW’s most important population of bilbies.

Rebecca West and Reece Pedler with children Isla, 5, Zachary, 2, and baby Edwin, near their home at Fort Grey in the Sturt National Park, NSW. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Like any Australian kids, the Pedler children love their backyard.

The difference is their backyard is 3253sq km of wild, red desert and home to 67 species of reptile and NSW’s most important bilby population.

This arid landscape of mulga and saltbush, and heat and flies, is all the Pedler children – Isla, 5, Zachary, 2, and Edwin, 10 months – have ever known.

Their parents, ecologists ­Rebecca West and Reece Pedler, are raising their young family in the sands of Sturt National Park, in northwestern NSW, while they carry out research as part of a 10-year project.

For seven years, they have called the Fort Grey research station home while they work to protect the national park’s animals and prepare it for the reintroduction of locally extinct species.

Apart from the births of their children, the only time the couple have left the desert has been for short stints at the end of each year when caretakers come to watch over the park.

Life in the wild under the tutelage of a pair of ecologists has rubbed off on the children.

When The Australian visited the family over summer, little Isla was full of knowledge and advice about the plants and how to survive in the harsh environment.

A sharp rebuke to a photographer for a wayward foot – “You’re standing on the baby coolibahs” – and a warning that caps offered no sun protection for exposed ears ­offered an insight into the mind of a child with a thirst for knowledge and a big, rugged backyard.

“We were both keen to take on this challenge and come and do something a bit out of the ordinary and live remotely, and having kids has been the next step in that challenge,” Dr Pedler said.

“Neither of us envisaged at the start that that’s what we’d be doing. It’s been an adventure.”

For now, Isla is formally educated via school-of-the-air and a governess helps care for the children.

Their exposure to nature is similar to the childhoods that ­inspired their parents’ careers.

Dr West, originally from Britain, grew up around animals as the daughter of a zookeeper.

Dr Peddler’s love of nature was instilled by his conservationist parents and upbringing on a farm in South Australia.

When the opportunity arose to be the hands-on curators of the Wild Deserts project – a 10-year partnership between National Parks and Wildlife, Ecological Horizons and UNSW Sydney – they did not hesitate to give up the luxuries of civilisation.

Their main concern is two patches of national park that have been fenced off against cats and provide a feral predator-free patch of wilderness for reintroduced bilbies and other wildlife.

Eventually they plan to reintroduce seven locally extinct species into the park and to help get them ready for life among feral cats and foxes.

“We’re trying to fast-track this behavioural learning and natural selection to breed these smarter animals so that they’ve got a hope of surviving in the wider landscape outside of enclosures,” Dr Pedler said.

The tenets of the project could then be applied to private properties where many farmers have ­installed dingo-proof fences to protect livestock.

“If we’re successful, then you should be able to take this and apply it anywhere,” Dr West said.

“If you’ve got managed predator densities you should be able to put bilbies in there or native species in there, but they need to be trained first.”

The presence of animals like bilbies offers benefits to the landscape and for graziers. The marsupials dig holes in the sand that trap seeds, nutrients and water and promote pasture growth.

“It changes the place, basically,” Dr Pedler said. “There’s a missing link in the ecosystem and putting them back makes it a better functioning place.”

While the days can be lonely, the summers hot and flies unrelenting, modern technology has made life easier for the family.

Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system has been a game-changer for connectivity, enabling the researchers to keep tabs on remote cameras from the office and conduct meetings over Zoom.

Better vehicles and a partially sealed road to Tibooburra, the nearest town, 110km away, have also improved access to the outside world. They’ve made friends with neighbouring graziers and people in town, where they are ­involved in community groups.

“We’ve found people so welcoming and learnt so much from them,” Dr Pedler said. “If you need advice, the people on these neighbouring stations are always happy to help.”