Save Australian wildlife with your old speaker cabinets!

Bev Carlyle from Lismore’s Sound Solution is on a mission to save Australian wildlife, and she needs your old speaker cabinets to do it!

“It turns out that old speaker boxes are perfect nest boxes for Australian native birds and animals,” Bev explains. “My mission is to locate the mythical ‘speaker box graveyard’. Speaker boxes have got to be the most reusable items ever made – they last a lifetime. Surely there are plenty of boxes out there just waiting to be repurposed for a needy cause.”

After the devastating drought and catastrophic bushfires, Australia is in desperate need of nest boxes of all sizes for our wildlife. It takes over 100 years to grow a tree big enough to form a hollow that is large enough to make a nest. There are a lot of nesting boxes being made at the moment, but they only last about three years out in the bush. Bev is sure professionally-made speaker boxes can outlast that easily.

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“We have lost so many trees to drought, fire, logging, and development,” Bev continues. “Now our struggling wildlife is faced with an onslaught of invasive species. Foxes, cane toads, and cats are all taking a major toll on our native populations, across every species. The open country has made it easy to travel overland and our wildlife are hard pressed to find shelter. Our wildlife need safe places, and a place to raise a family.”

The idea came to Bev while working with Landcare. “We’ve had a couple of workshops about nest boxes and actually built some,” she elaborates. “Building the boxes took me back to when I used to do a lot of speaker maintenance. The boxes have a similar design and use the same materials. It occurred to me that any old speaker box would make a wonderful home for our birds and wildlife, and the newer plastic boxes might last for many, many years. I recently read an article about how hard it has been to build a nest box big enough for the Powerful Owl. A 15” speaker enclosure would be perfect for the job. Most modern speaker enclosures have flying points too. What more could we ask for?”

Emma Stone, co-ordinator of the Border Rangers and Richmond Valley Landcare Network (BRRVLN) is seeking expressions of interest from anyone who would like to donate their disused speaker boxes. If enough interest is shown, Emma will co-ordinate logistics.

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You can contact Emma at: invasive.species@brrvln.org.au