Once upon a time, not that long ago, Australia hosted an abundance of digging mammals, like boodies, bilbies and potoroos. With the loss of these species from many parts of the landscape comes the loss of the work they did as ecosystem engineers. Leonie Valentine, Bryony Palmer and Gabrielle Beca unearth some important findings about the importance and role of native digging mammals in the Australian landscape and things to consider when returning lost diggers to their homelands.