Nest Boxes in Action: Mansfield Primary Students Explore Wildlife Habitat at the Mullum Wetlands

There's nothing quite like the look on a kid's face when they spot a possum peeking out of a nest box. This week, Kim and Jess from Up2Us had the pleasure of seeing that exact reaction, again and again, during a session with the grade five students at Mansfield Primary School.

The day started in the classroom, where we talked through why nest boxes matter so much for our local wildlife. So many of our native animals, possums, gliders, owls, parrots and more, rely on tree hollows to survive and breed. The problem is that hollows take a very long time to form, often more than a hundred years, and we've lost a huge number of them to land clearing and bushfires. Nest boxes aren't a permanent fix, but they're a valuable stopgap that gives displaced wildlife somewhere safe to shelter and raise their young while the landscape slowly recovers.

After the presentation, we packed up and walked down to the Mansfield Mullum Wetlands to see the theory in action. Armed with a camera, we checked in on some of the nest boxes already installed in the area, and the timing couldn't have been better. The students were thrilled to spot a couple of possums who'd made themselves right at home, along with a few spiders who clearly saw the same real estate opportunity. As a bonus, we also came across a brushtail possum curled up fast asleep in a natural hollow, a great reminder of what these boxes are ultimately standing in for. One sharp-eyed student even spotted an egg on the ground that looked as though something had already hatched from it, a small discovery that had the whole group buzzing with questions about what it might have been.

The enthusiasm from the students was fantastic to see. Their next step is to design nest boxes of their own, and later in the term they'll get hands-on and build boxes that will go on to serve a real purpose: they'll be installed out in the recovering fire grounds, giving local wildlife a helping hand in areas where natural hollows were lost.

It's days like this that remind us why this work matters. Giving kids a genuine, close-up connection to the wildlife in their own backyard is one of the best ways to grow the next generation of people who care about looking after it.

This project is supported by the Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority through funding from the Victorian Landcare Grants and the Victorian Landcare Program.