With Australia having the most hollow-dependent wildlife in the world, Town of Walkerville wants to ensure its fauna is being looked after. It can take a substantial number of years (100+) for trees to start forming hollows. With the loss of many older trees and habitat clearance across South Australia, it doesn’t leave many natural hollows left for our wildlife to utilise.

Town of Walkerville engaged James from fauNature to work on this project to make a positive impact on the local hollow-dependent wildlife and raise environmental awareness in the Township. fauNature’s wildlife boxes are all built locally in South Australia and are designed especially for animals to breed and survive by providing the ideal alternative to a natural hollow.

As an advocate for wildlife in South Australia for over two decades, James surveyed sites and met with staff to put together a strategy for Council's environmental needs and provided advice on the suitable products for the various locations across the Township.

Certain considerations were taken on how each wildlife box would be installed, which is dependent on what fauna it is designed for. Many of Council's wildlife boxes are installed between 4-7m high on Eucalyptus trees. They have been positioned in ways that are protected from the sun and wet winds.

fauNature continues its support of Council's wildlife boxes with half-yearly monitoring and maintenance to ensure all boxes are in good condition. During James’ maintenance work, wildlife activity is recorded, the boxes are cleaned out as required and new nesting materials are added. A full report is supplied to Council and available on this webpage. This report is also distributed to the local schools involved in the project for further education in class.

The approach Council has taken with this project is positively impacting the local hollow-dependent fauna in the Township. The wildlife boxes have been in service for three years with utilisation at over 70%. It is common to take over five years to reach this level of occupancy.

Town of Walkerville has a variety of colourful boxes for all kinds of wildlife, of the 59 boxes there is:

• 12 brushtail possum boxes;
• 24 medium parrot boxes;
• 13 small parrot boxes;
• two large parrot boxes;
• six bat boxes;
• one boobook box; and
• one kookaburra box.

_{Photos  of wildlife boxes  painted by local school children}

Town of Walkerville’s wildlife boxes were well utilised by the local fauna in 2024. At the time of fauNature’s spring survey, 37% were in use. fauNature reported that 16 boxes appeared empty and unused, including all six bat boxes. Thirteen of the empty boxes were from the July 2024 install and it suggests local wildlife either had not found or were not comfortable with the new resources.

fauNature indicated that 11 nesting events occurred in the small parrot boxes and/or medium parrot boxes, with a single breeding event by Rainbow Lorikeets. Two Galah breeding events were observed with one egg and one chick at Howie Reserve and the second, a single chick at Hamilton Reserve.

No microbat’s were recorded and fauNature have said that they are generally slow to inhabit wildlife boxes.

Feral bees were found in a small percentage of the wildlife boxes and, unfortunately, are an environmental threat. An apiarist will be engaged to safely remove and rehome these bees.

fauNature reported a range of ‘non-box resident wildlife’ species in some locations. Noisy Miners and Rainbow Lorikeets were most widespread, however, to find out what other wild species frequent Council's parks and reserves and for more in depth report, check out our latest Wildlife Box Monitoring Report from fauNature.

_{Photos taken upon routine monitoring by fauNature}

Wildlife Monitoring Report 2022

Wildlife Box Provision & Installation Report 2024

Wildlife Box Monitoring Report 2024

Wildlife Box Monitoring Report 2025