Murrayville farmer Trevor Wyatt was just six when his father introduced him to what has become his lifelong role as guardian of three nests of rare malleefowls on the family's farm.
After taking over the role from his father, Mr Wyatt has spent the past 60 years protecting the fowls from predators.
But even after six decades of watching these rare and elusive birds, he has never witnessed a hatching.
But this year he's confident he'll see one.
Mr Wyatt, better known as "Blue" in his tight-knit, north-western Victorian community, says each year the hens lay 20 to 30 eggs from October to January, about one every four days, which they bury deep in the nest.
While the hen is busy laying the uncomfortably large eggs, the male's job is to keep the nest at the right incubation temperature, about 33C, by shifting huge amounts of dirt.
The birds firstly dig out the soil from the nest to check the temperature, before scratching it all back in to re-cover the incubating eggs.
The eggs hatch after about 50 days' incubation in the warm soil, and the chicks then dig their way to the surface.
Mr Wyatt says they are able to fly within hours of emerging into the world, but unless the parents are working on the nest during a hatching, the chicks might never see them.
'Better than the weather bureau'
After all the eggs have hatched, the malleefowls dig the nest out and leave it open to wait for rain.
And then, like clockwork, six weeks before rain arrives, they return to scratch leaves and sticks back into the nest, so that the warmth of the decomposing moist leaf matter keeps the nest at the correct temperature for incubating future eggs.
He said he had only once seen a pair of malleefowls forecast rain incorrectly, when an immature male started filling in the nest too early.
Foxes are the major predators
But sometimes a predator sneaks past a guardian.
Mr Wyatt recalls the day when he went to check on one of his three nests and discovered fox tracks all around it and feathers strewn across the dirt.
He could not tell if the remains were from one or two of the parent birds that had created the nest.
So now he guards the remaining two nests and hopes for the best.
After seeing "hundreds of fox tracks", Mr Wyatt contacted Parks Victoria who helped by baiting the foxes.
With fewer predators, he is hopeful that the remaining birds will be able to survive.
"The problem is the foxes know that the young chicks hatch and sit around the nest and get them," he said.
It's believed that on average only one of the young out of a nest survives to adulthood as the chicks are easy prey for foxes and feral cats.
Malleefowl whisperer
Mr Wyatt has been described as a malleefowl whisperer after befriending the birds he watches over.
He said that on one occasion, the birds were so tired from their daily task of shifting massive amounts of dirt that the male malleefowl let him help.
It shows just how much the birds have come to trust their human guardian.
But, even after 60 years, Mr Wyatt has yet to see a hatchling.
He is hoping this year might be different.