Situated within the Shark Bay World Heritage Area 19 miles of the coast of Denham Dirk Hartog Island is the perfect environment for some of Australia's most unique animals to survive and thrive. A lack of human traffic, both on and around the island, means that much of Dirk Hartog is in pristine condition - the perfect setting for eco tourism.

Since the Homestead was opened to guests in 1993 a comprehensive environmental management plan has been put in place to ensure visitor impacts on the island are kept to a minimum.

Since the introduction of the environmental management plan, degradation on the island has been reduced by 66%, an impressive trend which the Wardle family plan to continue. The Agricultural Department of Western Australia inspect the island annually and have found significant re-growth of natural vegetation on several areas around the island.

The Wardle's have also successfully removed over 3,000 sheep from the island and continue to operate a successful and sustainable pastoral business on a World Heritage Island.

The Wardle's are committed to ensure that all tourism activities undertaken on the island are environmentally sustainable and hope to be a vector of environmental and historical awareness, appreciation and experience.

The environmental management plan aims:

• To protect and conserve native animals in the habitat
• To provide monitoring and support to scientific research in order to aid future management and natural resource knowledge generally
• To ensure the island's commercial operations are not in any way compromise its natural or World Heritage values
• To protect and conserve physical, cultural and scenic resources