Final run from Col's shed above Maldon • In 11 active carts • 28 left
Col's Hand-Built Owl Box
Col's Hand-Built Owl Box
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Col's Hand-Built Owl Box
Hand-built in the box-ironbark country above Maldon, Victoria
Col Brennan, seventy-three — thirty-eight years a licensed wildlife carer, more than sixteen hundred nest boxes and a card for every one. Surgery on his right hand has ended the fine work. Fifty-eight boxes are all that is left on the bench.
“A moth owl can’t cut its own doorway. It takes what an old tree gives it, and an old tree takes a hundred years. So I cut it one.”
What turns up at your door
Why something actually moves in — and a hardware-shop box sits empty
The entrance is bored by hand to roughly 9.5 cm and set high in the face of the box. Wide enough for a moth owl, a rosella or a ringtail to slip through, and deliberately too tight for a brushtail possum to shoulder in and own the place. The size of that one opening, and how high it sits, decides what ends up living in it.
It is about 33 cm from the lip of the doorway down to the floor where the clutch sits. A currawong cannot lean in far enough, a kookaburra cannot reach the bottom and a goanna’s arm stops well short. The deep ones raise birds. The shallow ones just feed whatever finds them.
Untreated, unpainted pine, 20 mm thick, and nothing else. A freshly painted box reads as a chemical warning to a bird, and a dark one cooks like a ute cabin through a forty-degree week. Raw timber breathes and weathers to the same grey as an old ironbark limb.
The whole front swings open on a single fitted hook. A season of pellets, feathers and leaf litter comes out in about two minutes. In this country that is not housekeeping — an unchecked box is how a pair of starlings or a swarm of feral bees end up owning it permanently.
The inner wall under the doorway is left rough sawn, with low grooves cut across it. Young birds leave the hollow before they can fly properly and have to climb that wall to reach the opening. A smooth interior is a bucket.
Every box is cut, bored and grooved by Col himself on one worn bandsaw — the better part of a day of work in each. No crew, no machine stamping them out, and no second batch once the bench is empty.
“The Australian owlet-nightjar, the bird most people know as the moth owl, is a secondary hollow user. It cannot excavate anything — it depends entirely on hollows that a eucalypt has grown on its own, and a usable hollow takes upwards of a hundred years to form. That is the whole bottleneck. In New South Wales alone, 46 mammals, 81 birds, 31 reptiles and 16 frogs rely on tree hollows, and the loss of hollow-bearing trees is a listed Key Threatening Process. In the box-ironbark country of central Victoria the old trees went in a single generation during the gold rush, and the regrowth that replaced them is nowhere near old enough to have holes in it. A correctly built nest box is the fastest way an individual can put that habitat back: the entrance has to be the right size and set high above a deep floor, the timber has to be untreated and thick enough not to overheat, and it has to open for an annual clean-out. Get those four right and the box will be found. Most retail boxes get at least one of them wrong.”
Dr Alison Vaughan, Ecologist — Hollow-Dependent Fauna
Goldfields Woodland Ecology Centre
Perfect for
Quality you can check yourself
- Untreated weatherproof pine, 20 mm thick. No stain, no sealant, no paint — nothing that carries a smell a bird will refuse, and nothing dark enough to cook in February.
- Hand-bored entrance, set high. Roughly 9.5 cm, positioned well above the floor so nothing can work the hole from below.
- A genuinely deep cavity. About 33 cm from the doorway down to the floor, which is what keeps a clutch out of reach.
- A cleaning door that actually opens. Hinged front on a single fitted hook, so the box gets used for years rather than once.
- Rough-sawn climb-out wall. The detail nobody photographs and every young bird needs on the day it leaves.
30-day guarantee
If it isn’t right for your patch, email info@backroad-goods.com within 30 days and send it back for a full refund. No fuss, no questions. Shipping anywhere in Australia is free both ways.
Hand-built, so no two are identical. Grain, knots and the exact weathering will differ from box to box — that is the timber, not a fault. On what moves in, we would rather be straight with you: a nest box is an offer of habitat, not a booking. Whether something takes it up depends on what is living within range of you, on the country around you and on where you put it, and it can take a season or three. What is certain is the other way round — an animal that finds no hollow at all has no chance. On species: the ~9.5 cm entrance suits moth owls (Australian owlet-nightjars), crimson and eastern rosellas, ringtail possums and antechinus. It is not a boobook, barn owl or powerful owl box — those birds need a far larger opening and a much bigger floor.
Product details
| Material | Untreated weatherproof pine, iron mounting bracket |
| Finish | Bare sawn timber — unpainted, unsealed, weathers to grey |
| Overall size (H × W × D) | approx. 38.5 × 25 × 28 cm |
| Interior (H × W × D) | approx. 33 × 18 × 21 cm |
| Entrance | approx. 9.5 × 9.5 cm, set high in the face |
| Weight | approx. 1.3 kg |
| Suitable for | Moth owls (Australian owlet-nightjars) and other small hollow users — rosellas, ringtail possums, antechinus. Not suitable for boobook, barn or powerful owls, which need much larger boxes. |
| Siting | Tree trunk or wall, 3–5 m up, entrance facing east or south-east, away from the hot afternoon sun and the prevailing weather |
| Best time to put up | Late winter or early spring, so it has weathered before the September–December nesting season |
| Care | Brush it out once a year in late summer, February or March, through the hinged front |
| Made by | Col Brennan, Maldon, central Victoria — by hand, one at a time |
| Remaining stock | 58 boxes. There is no second batch. |
The Last Spring
The Last Spring
A note from the shed:
Col Brennan has held a Victorian wildlife shelter licence out of a corrugated-iron shed above Maldon, in the box-ironbark country of central Victoria, since 1988. More than sixteen hundred nest boxes across the district, every one written up on a card: the date, the tree, the compass bearing, and what moved in. He checked them every spring for thirty-eight years, and the count came back lower nearly every year.
In March the surgeons took a melanoma off the back of his right hand and grafted it. The strength came back; the feel did not, and a ninety-five-millimetre doorway is bored by feel. He handed the licence back the same month.
Fifty-eight finished boxes are what is left on the bench. There is no apprentice and there is no second batch.
Free Shipping Australia-Wide
Free Shipping Australia-Wide
Free shipping anywhere in Australia
- Delivery time: 3–7 business days
- Untreated weatherproof pine, 20 mm thick, with an iron mounting bracket
- Overall approx. 38.5 × 25 × 28 cm · interior approx. 33 × 18 × 21 cm · entrance approx. 9.5 × 9.5 cm · approx. 1.3 kg
- Mount 3–5 m up a trunk or wall, entrance facing east or south-east, out of the hot afternoon sun
- Put it up in late winter or early spring, before the September–December nesting season
- Clean it out through the drop-front once a year in February or March
- Suits moth owls (Australian owlet-nightjars), crimson and eastern rosellas, ringtail possums and antechinus. Not a boobook, barn owl or powerful owl box — those need a far larger opening and floor.
- 30-day money-back guarantee
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
Got a question? Here's how to reach us.
Email us any time at info@backroad-goods.com. We answer Monday–Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday 10am–3pm (AEST). Whether it is about your order, which tree to put it on, or just to say hello — a real person writes back.
Can I return it if it isn't right?
Can I return it if it isn't right?
Of course. 30-day money-back guarantee. Put it up, live with it a few weeks, and if it is not right for your patch, email info@backroad-goods.com within 30 days for a full refund. No questions, and shipping within Australia is free both ways.
How is it made?
How is it made?
One at a time, by hand, on a single worn bandsaw — the better part of a day of work in each box. Untreated pine, 20 mm thick, never painted or sealed. The doorway is bored to roughly 95 mm and set high in the front; the cavity runs about 33 cm down to the floor; the inner wall is left rough-sawn with hand-cut grooves so young birds can climb out on the day they leave. The whole front swings open on a single hook for the annual clean-out.