He's been on Clarke Island for the last three months.

Yesterday on the island he met up with Peter Barr, one of the workers at Ashley who knows him well.

After a few hours spent touring the 4500ha slice of Bass Strait paradise, Ben farewelled his old Ashley guardian with a polite handshake and a promise he hopes to keep: ``Well, I guess I won't be seeing you again, Mr Barr.''

Mr Barr laughed.

``I hope only in a social situation, at least,'' he said.

The fact that Ben is banking on not returning to Ashley is a minor breakthrough for a young kid from Launceston who has been in trouble with the law too many times, mainly for burglary and stealing.

It seems Clarke Island has done him some good.

The scheme to put young Aboriginal offenders on the island rather than in Ashley has been under way since last October.

Its progress was seen first-hand yesterday by Health and Human Services Minister Judy Jackson, Mr Barr, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre legal adviser Michael Mansell and youth justice worker Michael Beeton.

About 12 youths, including one girl, have been through the programme in the last four months.

Luke, 16, arrived just before Christmas. He, too, has been convicted of property crime.

He's become something of a leader on the island. He's polite, offering to carry the photographer's bag. He's proud of the Aboriginal dot painting he's working on in his bedroom.

Luke is enjoying the time out from the pressures of city life.

``I'd be crazy to want to leave here,'' he said.

He will eventually, in August, and then he might consider doing a bricklaying course or some other training that would give him the chance to work back on Clarke Island, which is between Flinders and Cape Barren islands.

Peter Barr knows all three boys now on Clarke Island from their time in Ashley and he recognises a difference in them.

``They seem much more open and outgoing,'' Mr Barr said.

``I think they're doing very well. I think Shayne Maher is doing a fantastic job. It's 24-hours-a-day, seven- days-a-week and you've got to hand it to him _ that's not easy.''

Shayne Maher is the caretaker on the island who looks after the boys with his wife Janette.

They are a gentle couple who have been on the island for about a year, offering a family environment for the troubled youths who arrive there.

They live with their four children in the main cottage and the youths have a separate cottage just across the lush green lawn.

``It's been pretty challenging, a few hiccups here and there but otherwise it has gone fine,'' Mr Maher said.

``I just like watching the boys pick up on things and they even teach me things, the way they go about their work on the island.''

The boys live in a basic but comfortable cottage which has an amazing view over a small beach protected by orange- stained boulders.

A chair made from driftwood by some of the boys sits on the verandah.

Premier Jim Bacon visited the island earlier this year.

``It went all right,'' Clinton, 16, said.

``He told us our rooms were cleaner than his son's.''

There are 1300 sheep and 80 cattle on the island.

The boys are required to do 15 hours a week work on the farm and yesterday they were busy drenching some of the sheep.

There are farm sheds and machinery, a separate toilet and shower block, a seven-hole golf course built by the boys and a large sign plotted out in stones on the grass which says Lungtalanana, the Aboriginal name for Clarke Island.

The boys cook for themselves a lot of the time, but Janette Maher is always ready with a roast.

``I treat them like a family,'' she said.

The boys are enthusiastic about their island home. They show us the grave of one-time Clarke Island resident Emily Ann MacLaine, who died in 1897.

The MacLaine cottage, with its baltic pine floor and wooden shingle roof, is still on the property.

Flakes of the original wallpaper flutter in the wind. Underneath the wallpaper is a scrap of newspaper dated May, 1870.

The boys are desperate to do something to save the building which is in danger of falling in a heap, but the National Trust apparently wants no one to touch it.

When they are not working, the boys dive for crayfish and abalone, trying to keep clear of the resident stingray. They roam the island. They go on boat trips to the outer islands.

The idea is for them to learn about discipline and responsibility and understand what it is like to be free, away from drugs and peer pressure and the temptation to do wrong.

``I guess you have time to think here. You don't have to worry about much,'' Ben said.

The Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania holds the lease on the island on behalf of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre.

Young offenders have to volunteer to go to Clarke Island, they have to want to be there.

The TAC and Ashley determine the suitability of each volunteer.

``It's not just `post them off to Clarke and forget them' _ there is a plan,'' Mr Barr said.

TAC legal adviser Michael Mansell said the Clarke Island scheme was the best he had seen for young Aboriginal offenders.

Mr Mansell says the boys had a better chance of not reoffending if they were taken out of the prison system and given a chance to learn some self-esteem and independence.

``There's nothing criminal about them when they're here. They're just very ordinary kids who are keen to learn,'' Mr Mansell said.

``And this place is character building.''

About $40,000 has already gone into the programme and another $60,000 has been allocated to carry it over to the next financial year.

Mr Mansell said the programme needed at least $100,000 a year to continue, with more accommodation to be built and extra staff to be employed, and he hoped ATSIC would contribute to some of the costs.

``It's important for Aborigines to run their own community in a way they know best and the Government has let them do that,'' he said.

``It's a real step, in the long term, towards self- determination.''

Mrs Jackson said she would like a maximum of 10 youths to stay on the island at any one time.

``I personally wouldn't like to see it get too big. I think you have to retain that family atmosphere. We don't want a little institution on Clarke Island,'' she said.

``It is all about Aboriginal kids learning their culture and having the family experience.''

Mrs Jackson was impressed by the three boys she met yesterday in Clarke Island.

``They're fine young men, really. And they seem very happy,'' she said.

``It's great to see the way they live and to see they have some independence and that they obviously enjoy it.