Randwick City Council is proud to launch Hollows as Homes, a groundbreaking research project at Randwick Environment Park in partnership with UNSW wildlife researchers.

Starting May 2025, the project will install, monitor and evaluate two innovative hollow habitat technologies—providing homes for local wildlife and helping shape the future of habitat planning across Sydney.

Why do hollows matter?

Tree hollows are vital for the future of one third of Australia’s native mammals and 15% of native birds who depend on them for shelter and breeding.

But hollows only form in large trees more than 100 years old. As older trees are removed for safety reasons and new plantings take decades to mature, wildlife is left facing a housing crisis.

The NSW Government has declared the loss of hollow-bearing trees a Key Threatening Process—making it urgent to find effective alternatives.

What makes this project different?

Traditional wooden nest boxes often fail: they don’t last long, and animals avoid them due to unstable temperatures.

This project trials two cutting-edge designs:

• 3D-printed modular nest boxes – durable, adaptable, and designed for specific species.
• In-tree drilled hollows – a device creates safe chambers inside live or dead wood, fast-tracking the natural process.

Both provide safer, more stable habitats, giving native species a much better chance of survival.

Who will benefit?

From secretive microbats to charismatic rosellas, lorikeets, galahs, and smaller birds like sacred kingfishers and pardalotes, a wide range of wildlife could soon call Randwick’s new hollows home.

Ongoing monitoring by UNSW researchers—together with a decade of bird data collected by local citizen scientists—will track the success of these innovations.

Randwick Mayor Dylan Parker said:
“When Council collaborates with research institutions and community groups, we can achieve real change for our community, native wildlife and environment… ensuring a diversity of life continues to thrive in our city for generations to come.”

Want to get involved?

• Log your sightings on iNaturalist
• Spot the nest boxes from pathways (but please don’t disturb them or monitoring equipment)
• Join citizen science programs to help track and restore local habitat.
• Learn more:
  • Hollows as Homes research happening across Sydney.
  • Home is where the hollow is NSW-wide initiatives.

Explore more ways to help wildlife in Randwick:

• Volunteer with Bushcare and restore bushland across Randwick.
• Join Food for Wildlife or Community Birding events as part of Saturday Circle (every second Saturday of the month).
• Create a wildlife haven at home or school through Council’s Native Havens program.