The heart of Currawinya is a pair of lakes that could hardly be more different. Lake Numalla is fresh; the slightly larger Lake Wyara is salt. They lie close together, fed by the Paroo - one of the last wild, unregulated rivers in the Murray-Darling system - yet they support different communities of life and shimmer with different light. When good rains come, the lakes fill and the birds arrive in extraordinary numbers: pelicans, ducks, swans, and shorebirds that have flown thousands of kilometres, gathering on the water in their tens of thousands. In a parched land, these wetlands are a kind of miracle, which is why they carry Ramsar listing as wetlands of international importance. Red sandplains beside dusty roads give no hint of the abundance waiting at the water's edge.

The greater bilby once ranged across most of the continent. Foxes, feral cats and habitat loss drove it back until it clung on across only a fraction of its former country. At Currawinya, conservationists drew a line - literally. In 2001, with money raised by the Save the Bilby Fund, a predator-exclusion fence was completed around a 25-square-kilometre enclosure, and captive-bred bilbies were released inside to rebuild a wild population. The project has weathered setbacks: floods damaged the fence, feral cats broke in, and the work had to be done again. But the fence was rebuilt and strengthened, more bilbies were released, and the population has rebounded into the hundreds. Even the general store at nearby Eulo sells fluffy toy bilbies to help fund the effort - a small gesture toward saving a creature most Australians have never seen in the wild.

Long before it was a national park, this was - and remains - a place of deep significance to the Budjiti people, its traditional owners. The lakes, the river, and the wider landscape hold a long history of Aboriginal use, rich in archaeological, traditional and continuing cultural value. To stand here is to stand on Country that has sustained people through cycles of flood and drought for thousands of years, where knowledge of where the water gathers and the food can be found was passed down across generations. The waterbirds that astonish modern visitors were a resource and a presence in this landscape long before the first pastoral station was carved out of it, and the connection between people and place endures.

Currawinya does not make things easy, and that is part of its character. The roads are unsealed; a four-wheel drive is needed to reach Lake Wyara and the granite outcrops known as the Granites. There is no fuel in the park, no food, no reliable drinking water, and no mobile phone reception anywhere within it. Summer days can hit 40 degrees while nights drop sharply even in the warm months. The country's red soils and mulga have a sameness that disorients walkers, and a breakdown on a back track can leave you stranded overnight. Yet for those who come prepared - carrying water, fuel and a plan - the rewards are immense: kangaroos and emus on the roads, turtles in the rivers, and the unforgettable sight of a desert lake crowded with birds beneath an enormous outback sky.