Key people involved in the world-first project last week celebrated the success of having trained Maremma dogs protecting the penguin colony, which had dwindled to just four birds over the summer of 2005-06.

The protection from foxes has allowed the colony to regain numbers.

Meet the Maremma guide and Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network volunteer Dr Trish Corbett, a marine scientist, said last season there was an estimated peak of about 180 penguins.

She said a count over the summer season in 1999-2000 recorded 500 birds.

“We’re up to over 180 penguins, but still nowhere near the 500 penguins we had before the fox kills,” Dr Corbett said.

“We still have a fragile colony and they do still need ongoing support.”

Dr Corbett, who has been involved in the project for seven years, said the colony had gradually grown over time, with some setbacks, particularly during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons due to a drop in food available for the penguins. Numbers had since picked up.

The success of the project, inspired by chicken farmer Swampy Marsh’s use of Maremmas to protect his chickens, led to it being known as the ‘Warrnambool method’ of wildlife conservation management.

Middle Island project working group chair Anne Wallis said it was fantastic that the project had been running for 10 years with the crucial support of the community, volunteers and organisations such as Warrnambool City Council and Warrnambool Coastcare Landcare Network.

Dr Wallis said interest and support, particularly since the film Oddball, based on the project and released in 2015, had been enormous.

Beyond seeing the colony grow, Dr Wallis said watching the project’s impact on young people was special.

“The things I’ve had some of the most satisfaction from is receiving letters from children in school who are just so fascinated by the project. Or whole groups or a class who saved up money and sent their donations in,” she said.

“If we can create someone who then grows up with a passion for conservation biology, then the scientist in me comes out and says ‘that’s fantastic’.”

Former penguin volunteer coordinator and Maremma handler Melanie Wells emphasised the role volunteers and community support played.

“The project has been very much driven by our community and kept alive by our community and we’re very lucky in that respect,” she said. “In this last season alone, over 300 volunteer hours went into the penguin monitoring just by itself.

“That’s a core group of very regular volunteers that cross over to the island at dusk every fortnight and count all the penguins coming in.”

As the successes of the Middle Island penguin conservation project are celebrated, leaders are looking to the project’s future.

Middle Island project working group chair Anne Wallis said the group had been considering ways to respond to the tourism boost generated by interest in the colony’s revival.

She said a “seed" of an idea for an interactive display in a centre in the vicinity of the island had been talked about.

“Our vision is to have some sort of tourist tour that doesn't involve crossing to the island,” she said.

“If we can get that up and running, then we can have some sort of interpretative centre or some interactive thing.

“It’s a possibility that can’t happen tomorrow, where people can come at any time of the year and can get some experience of what the project is.”

Dr Wallis said it was important to remember the project’s core focus.

“You have to balance the tourism and balance the emphasis on the dogs – what is the aim?,” she said.

“We have to keep reminding ourselves that the aim of the project is penguin conservation at the end of the day.”

Dr Wallis said the Warrnambool community had been very receptive to understanding the need to stay off Middle Island since the project first started.

“Most people think the right thing is to look after the penguins so they’re willing to change their behaviour,” she said.

Warrnambool mayor Kylie Gaston said the project had generated millions of dollars for the city over the years by attracting visitors.

“It has been amazing in terms of profile for Warrnambool,” she said.

“Clearly Oddball is the best advertising we could ever have asked for, but it’s important to realise it is actually a scientific program, as cute as the Maremma dogs are.

“In the future the focus must be on growing the little penguin colony.”

The mayor also said setting up an offering for tourists close to the island was a possibility that could help sustain the project.

“Tourists love a place they can have their photo taken,” Cr Gaston said.

“So if they can’t go on the island, if they could be in a position in front of the island to take a photo and have the possibility of making a donation to support the colony being looked after by the Maremmas, as well as a holistic look at the project.

“That could be really valuable.”

Two possible locations raised by Dr Wallis and Cr Gaston included near the footbridge over the Merri River or the site of the former aquarium at the breakwater.

Cr Gaston said the public could have their say through the Warrnambool Foreshore Precinct Framework Plan, due out for public comment in coming weeks.

The unique pairing of Maremma dogs and penguins that worked so well in Warrnambool could help other species on the brink of extinction.

Werribee Open Range Zoo’s Dave Williams played a key role in proposing and starting the Middle Island project while he was a Warrnambool-based Deakin University environmental science student, and the experience shaped his career.

Mr Williams now works on a project that aims to establish a self-sustaining population of eastern barred bandicoots, which only exist in captivity.

“The success of the Middle Island project brought this to the attention of people who then called me up and said, ‘do you think it will work on bandicoots?’,” he said.

“I said, ‘well I don’t know, but I’ll give it a fair crack’.”

The project has been running for more than two years and involves putting Maremma dogs and sheep in with the grassland-based bandicoots to ward off predators such as foxes and cats.

The trio of bandicoots, sheep and Maremmas will be placed at three sites in western Victoria beginning in a few months.

Mr Williams was confident about the trials.

The scientist said he was “in the right place at the right time” working at Swampy Marsh’s chicken farm – where Maremmas protected chickens – when reports of the little penguin colony being decimated by foxes sparked Swampy’s idea.

He wrote up proposals, which he first presented to his lecturers, and was surprised it got off the ground.

“We had four penguins and it was a last-ditch crazy idea that the council was bold enough to try,” Mr Williams said. “Really, they were pretty courageous.”

He praised volunteers who counted penguins for collecting crucial data.

“They’re the guys getting into a wetsuit in the freezing cold and wading across the bloody island to count the things,” he said.