Rainbow lorikeets, sugar gliders and micro bats are competing for man-made tree hollows springing up across the Gold Coast.

A council audit of Australia's largest tree hollow program has found almost every new home produced is being used by birds and animals.

The hollows are cut into trees using a chainsaw, and mimic natural hollows as closely as possible.

"We are finding up to around 85 per cent, 90 per cent uptake by native wildlife, which has just exceeded our expectations," project management officer Marty Harris said.

With new housing estates popping up across the 1,300 square kilometre Gold Coast City Council area, Mr Harris said he had seen the habitat destruction first-hand.

"I have lived on the Gold Coast most of my life and done tree work here for most of my life, for 20 years … and have seen the number of urban eucalypts that have been removed," he said.

Tree hollows that wildlife live in can take up to a century to occur naturally.

Almost 90 per cent of the artificial tree hollows on the Gold Coast are occupied by wildlife. ( ABC Gold Coast: Lucy Murray )

The council began its program three years ago and it has produced more than 400 hollows.

"We do look at any opportunity we can to retain and manage the trees that remain," Mr Harris said.

Trees being preserved for wildlife

Arborist Matt Collom said dead or dying eucalypts that would otherwise be cut down were now being preserved.

"They would be cut to a stump and put through a chipper," he said.

Now the dangerous limbs are lopped off and the hollows are cut into the tree using a chainsaw.

"We are trying to mimic what would naturally happen. We investigate that and we try to mimic it the best we could," Mr Collom said.

"The thickness, the depth, the entrances' sizes and heights and angles, we have studied it all to create these boxes."

Gliders, possums, galahs and cockatoos have been using the man-made hollows. ( Supplied: Dan Collom )

Tenants move into new hollows quickly

The most frequent tenants for the new hollows are rainbow lorikeets, but the audit also found wood ducks, squirrel gliders and cockatoos.

Mr Collom said one tree had 14 hollows cut into it and native animals were flocking to take up residence.

"In the space of an hour after making a hollow, we had some galahs," he said.

Mr Harris said other councils in Sydney and Melbourne had similar programs.

"It is something that, as a practice, I would like to see adopted across the board," he said.

The Tweed Shire Council in northern New South Wales is trialling a program and has three hollows cut into trees at Banora Point, Murwillumbah and Tomewin, according to arborist Luke Page.

"Tree hollows in urban areas are becoming increasingly rare, so the ability to create these high-rise habitats is very exciting," he said.

"It will provide better outcomes for park users and wildlife alike."