I made my first nest box when I was about 10 years old. We had a Common Brushtail Possum sleeping in our roof, so to help calm down my dad and reassure him that it probably wouldn’t pee on the ceiling if I helped it find a new home, I made a possum box. The possum soon moved out of the roof and took up residence in the box. For a while it disappeared… but one day it was back with a tiny baby sharing its home. It stayed around for 3 years and reared a new baby each year. I was hooked, so I made more. Big boxes, small ones. All sorts of shapes and sizes and out of whatever scrap material I could get my hands on. Throughout my teens I watched ducks, parrots, and possums nest inside the boxes I had hung around my garden. It was the best way to learn about local wildlife and develop a passion for the environment.

I now build nest boxes for other people, like you!

My boxes are made almost entirely from recycled material. Recently I have formed relationships with several people, including the construction company MacMahon, who kindly donate ply-wood from their building sites – this material otherwise goes to landfill. I also salvage large amounts of wood from the local tip, roadside collections, friends and family who are otherwise wanting to throw their wood out.

The hollow logs on the front of each box are either made from solid fallen timber (e.g. firewood) and drilled/chiselled out, or salvaged from firewood containing natural hollows. Nest boxes made using hollow logs from bushland would be removing natural habitat and this defeats the purpose of making them!

Below are a few photos of birds I’ve had nesting in my boxes over the last 6 years (since I got a camera). For more photos and stories, see the News section of this website. I hope you enjoy them, and become inspired to encourage wildlife into your garden with nest boxes too!

Simon, March 2012

Read about the schools and other groups who have participated in building nest boxes for their local area, and find out how you can book here at
the Re-cyc-ology Project.