While walking beneath a line of nest boxes on a bush track with friends, electronics engineer and nature enthusiast Wesley Nielsen was inspired. What if these boxes could connect people directly to the wildlife living inside them? What if while walking public trails people could view the fauna living within them?
That moment became the starting point of Comfy Creatures – a Brisbane-based business using clever technology to create safe, observable homes for some of Australia’s most vulnerable species.

This combination of habitat creation and real-time engagement is now being scaled up through Healthy Land & Water’s Urban Rewilding Program. As part of the initiative, 40 Comfy Creatures boxes will be installed in the Redlands, Noosa and the Gold Coast and supported by funding from the Queensland Government’s Natural Resource Management Expansion Program.

A sugar glider looking very cosy in its Comfy Creatures nesting box and the tree it calls home. Credit: Comfy Creatures Wildlife Dashboard.

The timing couldn’t be more critical.

SEQ is one of Australia’s fastest-growing regions, and rapid urban expansion is placing increasing pressure on native vegetation. Habitat fragmentation, rising temperatures, invasive species, and disconnected green spaces are making it harder for wildlife to survive, especially species like greater gliders that rely on continuous canopy and suitable nesting sites in old-growth trees.

Programs like Urban Rewilding are tackling these challenges head-on through nature-based solutions – restoring vegetation, reconnecting habitat corridors, and creating safe refuges for threatened species within urban and peri-urban landscapes.

At the heart of Comfy Creatures work are purpose-built habitat boxes designed for animals like the Endangered greater glider (Petauroides volans). As native forests continue to shrink, these hollow-dependent creatures are losing the natural tree hollows they rely on for food, shelter and breeding. Comfy Creatures sustainably built nesting boxes offer a vital alternative – secure, thoughtfully designed spaces that help reduce the risk of extinction.

Each nest box is fitted with a compact, standalone monitoring station – the first of its kind in the world – purpose-built to sit inside natural or artificial hollows. Solar-powered and completely self-sufficient, the device streams live footage straight to a user’s smartphone via the free Comfy Creatures Monitor app. Using its own Wi-Fi network, it also records environmental data such as temperature, humidity, pressure, and light levels.

The Comfy Creatures device, dashboard and habitat box.

For scientists and conservationists, this means safer, more efficient monitoring. It also opens a new window for the community.

Now, anyone walking along a public trail can pause, open the app, and peek inside a nest box. A curled-up glider, a curious possum, or even a new visitor might be waiting inside. Members of the public can log observations, download data, and contribute to a growing picture of how these species use their habitats.
To protect these precious spaces, the boxes can also be fitted with pest deterrents, using subtle red light, sound, and vibration to discourage unwanted non-native species from taking over.

All observations are recorded in a public database, also created by Comfy Creatures.

The addition of smart nest boxes adds another powerful layer: storytelling through data.

With daily observations, live feeds, and ongoing environmental monitoring, each box becomes more than just habitat – it becomes a source of insight. A way to understand which species are returning, how they’re using the space, and whether nesting efforts are successful.

And perhaps most importantly, it brings people along for the journey. Because when someone can watch a greater glider emerge at dusk from a box just metres above a walking trail, conservation stops being abstract. It becomes personal.

From a spark of curiosity on a bushwalk to a network of high-tech habitat homes across SEQ, Comfy Creatures is proving that innovation and connection can sit at the heart of conservation.

This project is funded by the Queensland Government’s Natural Resource Management Expansion Program.