This small mail plane connects Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to the Kiwirrkurra community of the Pintupi people 400 miles away.

“Even when I've gone to really remote communities, ” “you can see other things along the way.

” “You can see road, you can see sort of... human habitation ” “with signs of human activity.

” “Here, it's just empty desert ” “and then a speck of a community ” “that just appears out of nowhere.

” “It's just easy to see why this is considered ” “to be the most remote community in all of Australia.

” Non-Aboriginal people need a permit just to pass through this reserve.

So for me, it's a rare opportunity to be even allowed to visit.

Scarcely 160 Pintupi people live in this one tiny community and they're responsible for over 16,500 square miles of wilderness.

My introduction comes from ecologist, Dr. Rachel Paltridge.

For more than 20 years, she and the Kiwirrkurra people have built a successful two way science project where academic research is combined with an unbroken nomadic tradition dating back 60,000 years.

“Are there people in this community who would have, ” “as young people, been truly nomadic?

” “Yes there are, the Pintupi Nine were ” “the last people to come out of the bush.

” “A family of nine people still living ” “totally nomadically ” “living naked in the bush, ” “hunting for all their food until 1984.

” “So the two of the main women that we will be working ” “with two of our Rangers, Yukurrltji and Yati, ” “were part of that family group.

They're about the same age as me “born in about 1970.

” “Growing up at the same time, just in such different lives.

” “Where were you growing up?

” “I was growing up in South Australia on a sheep farm.

” “...and they were actually nomadic hunter gatherers?

” “It's incredible.

” “Yeah.

” “...and they had no idea about white people and we had no idea ” “that there were still people left out in the bush.

” One of that last nomadic family group is Nolia Ward.

Who works alongside her daughter Jodie, in a team of Rangers looking after the land.

They see few outsiders.

So I know, I'm going to have to earn their trust.

“These senior women are expert trackers.

” “Theyre some of the best trackers in the world.

” “They've grown up hunting for their food ” “by tracking the animals down.

” In recognition of their unique skill.

In 2014, the community secured an agreement that turned their traditional land into an Indigenous Protected Area, or IPA.

There are currently 70 IPAs protecting 160 million acres of Australian biodiversity, making this the largest protected zone of arid land on Earth.

Here in Australia, as in many of our vulnerable habitats, invasive animals such as feral cats, foxes, even camels pose a cataclysmic threat to biodiversity and the women have a key role to play.

“They're quite famous for their cat hunting, ” “people love to eat cats in Kiwirrkurra... feral cats.

” “Feral cats.

” “They're terrible problem in Australia.

” “Theyve caused the extinction of many, ” “many mammals.

” “Theres still animals living around here ” “that have persisted because of the cat hunting.

” Feral cats are responsible for the death of over a billion animals a year and are driving native animals to extinction.