Nest boxes are being installed at a bushfire-affected wildlife sanctuary to help animals left homeless to move back in after the Black Summer bushfires.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), in conjunction with Habitat Innovation and Management, are installing 100 Habitech nest boxes at the Two Thumbs Wildlife Trust Sanctuary in Cooma, while its surrounding landscape continues to recover from the intensity of the fires.
Twenty "two-bedroom" nest boxes - with two different chambers for multiple animals at a time - were also installed on the 724-hectare property.
Natural hollows take at least 100 years to develop in a eucalypt tree, so the Habitat nest boxes are designed to provide a "ready-to-move-in" alternative, IFAW said in a statement.
Campaign manager Josey Sharrad said animals that had survived the bushfires were still struggling to live in the charred and healing landscape.
"We are hopeful that after such a tragedy, these revolutionary two-bedroom nest boxes will provide a lifeline that is so desperately needed to bring this sanctuary back to life," she said.
Habitat innovation and management director Carl Tipper said they were "thinking inside the box" to create the world-first initiative.
"Our field research shows us that it is common for many different species to use a tree hollow, so we mimicked this by configuring our Habitech nest box to accommodate different species at the same time, which to our knowledge is a first," he said.
The installation of the nest boxes was part of a week-long blitz to assist the landscape including the planting of 2000 native grasses and trees, encouraging the return of bird life to the sanctuary.
The blitz also entailed the hollowing out of trees to provide more homes for smaller hollow-dependent animals, the planting of seeds to enhance biodiversity, and other work to aid landscape recovery.
Owner of the sanctuary James Fitzgerald said thousands of trees the animals had called home were destroyed on the property during the bushfires.
"So much was lost at the sanctuary. So much recovery work is needed, and it will take time, but it is uplifting to see nature get a helping hand and life start to return to the sanctuary," he said.
The nests are in addition to 25 installed by the two groups last year.
"These promising hollows are already showing signs of life with 75 per cent use recorded within two months of installation and evidence of gliders taking up residence - proving that nature can bounce back with a helping hand," Ms Sharrad said.
