There is no shortage of housing in the expanding area of Thurgoona, a neighbourhood of Albury in New South Wales — unless you happen to live in the trees.

After numbers of local squirrel gliders, a threatened species, began to drop, members of the local Men's Shed set about building them new homes.

Sam Niedra, from the Albury Conservation Company (ACC), said the squirrel gliders needed hollow trees to live and there just were not enough to go around.

"Squirrel gliders need hollow-bearing trees to shelter during the day when they sleep; they are a nocturnal animal," he said.

"They come out at night [and] they sleep in hollows of old trees, trees that are over 100 years old and that's also where they raise their young.

"Unfortunately, across the world there's been a big decline in old trees with hollows and Thurgoona Wirlinga is no different.

"There's a shortage of housing for squirrel gliders and lots of other species which are dependent on hollows and so nest boxes are a great and easy way of putting up additional homes at a pretty low cost."

Men's Shed lends a hand

Mr Niedra said his organisation approached the local Men's Shed about two years ago to help with the building of nest boxes.

Since then, the group has built more than 200 boxes for squirrel gliders and has started branching out, with groups outside Thurgoona also placing orders for nest boxes.

Thurgoona Men's Shed garden manager Rick Taylor built the first nest box which is now home to two squirrel gliders in trees on the shed's property.

President of the Thurgoona Men's Shed Bruce Dyce gets a closer look at the nest boxes. ( ABC Goulburn Murray: Annie Brown )

"We've done a bit over 200 for the squirrel gliders and we've done a few bird boxes too," Mr Taylor said.

"We also do bat boxes and we're making some for owls. It just seems to [be] going bigger and bigger.

"We don't make a lot [of money] out of them but we have to make a bit to cover our overheads."

Local Men's Shed president Bruce Dyce said the design had developed over the years.

"The first lot we made were pretty rough; we didn't really know what we were doing," Mr Dyce said.

"We're up to probably number 10 from prototype up to the modern day one which is more universal — it's cheaper, it's stronger, it'll last longer, it's easier to put up and obviously, it's working a lot better."

What's in the box?

Thurgoona Men's Shed and Albury Conservation Company are currently working on a nest box fitted with a built-in camera.

Mr Niedra said it would allow people to see what happened inside the boxes from their home and offices.

"It's been a two-way conversation and [ACC has] provided expertise and provided some really innovative ways of building the nest boxes that make it easier to install and check so you don't have to run up and down a ladder to look inside the box," he said.