Bradbury Cricket have embraced a more sustainable approach to manufacturing cricket bats that aims to extend the use of willow offcuts by making birdhouses for backyards all over Perth.  It is part of a circular economy initiative to minimise waste and encourage people look up and visually connect with nature through the installation of bird houses in an urban environment.

Being one of a handful of authentic Australian bat makers left we understand what it is like to be under threat so we empathise with the local species, the 28 parrot. Because we actually make our own bats, we have willow offcuts that we make these fantastic birdhouses from.  It is the edge of the raw cleft that gets sliced off to make every bat a legal width. Once the birdhouse is made, we throw a few good hand fulls of shavings, a by-product from using the drawknife to shape the bats. People that keep chickens help us with using this in their pens, so we know how much the birds appreciate it as a nesting base.

The bird houses are free, available to anyone who would like to pick one up from the workshop in O’Connor.  You will be required to safely instal the house in a suitable tree.

We ask that you follow, and post on the instagram @28birdhouses to share the experience and any progress with the house.  You do not need to identify who or where you are. If you would like a birdhouse, please DM through the instagram account.  The goal is to have 28 birdhouses installed.

Australian Parrots, also known as Twenty-Eights ,are the target they nest in tree hollows that are diminishing in our urban landscape.  The design of the 28 Birdhouse project replicates that form to replace like-for-like. Whilst we would ultimately love the parrots to nest in the new houses,  other wildlife would appreciate also the space, let nature decide. Materials are sourced from waste material, wood offcuts that are otherwise discarded, so the waste is derived from a tree and will be returned to a tree.