Calypto Hollows

A natural tree hollow takes 100 to 150 years to form, and the animals that need one cannot wait that long. Over 300 Australian species live in hollows, including 42 per cent of our mammals, and 22 per cent of those species are listed as threatened with extinction. Calypto Hollows carves the hollows instead of waiting for them. With custom designed equipment we burrow into the inner dead wood of a tree and replicate a natural hollow, sized for the species you are trying to house, in a matter of hours.

The technique works on living trees, on dead ones, and on trees that were headed for removal, which can be cut back to a structurally safe size and left standing as a habitat trunk. Coronet cuts finish the ends so a limb looks and behaves like one that failed naturally, and the whole job is done without compromising the health or the structure of the tree. Where a tree is too small, or the hollow needed is too large to carve, we build and install nest boxes instead, made to suit the target species, from a yellow bellied glider up to a powerful owl. They are cut from seasoned salvaged hardwood, hung on dynamic, non intrusive fittings that move with the tree, and checked periodically so neither the box nor the tree suffers for being up there.

Arborist reports and arboricultural consultancy are the other side of what we do, for commercial and domestic clients alike: tree risk assessments, preliminary tree assessments, arboricultural impact assessments, tree protection management plans, project arborist work, tree audits, health inspections and root exploration. That work is AQF Level 5 qualified, QTRA trained with ongoing study in tree risk and tree biology, carried out as a Registered Consulting Arborist and appropriately insured.

On the tools, we take contract climbing work Australia wide, AQF Level 3 qualified with years of climbing, pruning and rigging behind it. That covers crown reductions, restoration pruning on damaged trees, selective pruning and limb removals, dead wooding and hazard reduction, confined space removals, seed collection, storm damage and emergency works, and removals where habitat creation is built into the job. Minimal impact climbing is used throughout, and property and assets are protected while a tree in an awkward spot comes down.

Calypto Hollows was started by Nils Karlsson out of a love for the country around the Grampians National Park (Gariwerd), and we are based in Western Victoria and work across Australia from there. If you have a tree that needs assessing, a habitat project that needs an arborist on it, or storm damage that will not keep, ring Nils and talk it through.