YOUNGER volunteers across the City of Swan have been building and contributing spare hardware items to be repurposed into artificial owl hollows.

The scarcity of natural tree hollows has pushed volunteers from North Swan Landcare Group (NSLG) residents to make nesting boxes by hand which are giving local owl species the chance to live on.

NSLG are calling for residents to get involved by checking their homes for unused items such as medium sized butt hinges, bolt padlocks, old wooden broom handles, L-shaped shelf brackets, metal handles and hardwood offcuts.

These materials will be used to construct durable and functional owl homes.

The project, being carried in partnership with the Bullsbrook Community Men’s Shed, is building strong community connections too.

Eleven-year-old Suhayl from Ellenbrook has taken the initiative to create his own owl donation box, now located at the Ethel Warren Community Centre in Bullsbrook.

Suhayl said he recognised the importance of having owls in the area for controlling rodent populations and said the process of making the box was fun.

“I think we should save the owls,” he said.

“They’re the ones that kill most rats and mice (and) if they disappear, we’ll have a much bigger problem.

“More pests mean more poison, and that harms other animals too.

“(Owl boxes) attract owls to live in the area and raise their young (and) farmers can use them to naturally control rodents.

“Plus, they’re fun to make and can be built from recycled materials.”

Over east, a similar initiative started in 2025, called Owls Eat Rats, has been integrated into farms in New South Wales, relying on barn owls to replace reliance on poisons for rodent control.

According to the Owls Eat Rats project team, their monitoring showed that a single owl breeding cycle has had the capacity to remove around 1000 rats.

“At our monitored sites, we’ve identified multiple breeding events occurring in the same boxes within a single season,” they said.

The project team said the project had a three-year model where the first was about establishing owls in the habitat, second year involved stabilising rat populations, and the third year was about moving into sustained predation.

Materials needed to create owl nest boxes include 50-60mm bolt latches, butt hinges, L-shaped brackets, corrugated iron sheets and old broom handles.

Donation points are now available at key locations including the Ethel Warren Community Centre in Bullsbrook, Australian Premium Feeds on Frigate Way Bullsbrook, Michelle Maynard’s Office on Main Street in Ellenbrook, and the Caversham Café in Caversham.