Location: Northern end of Church Street.

The Species Hotels are exactly that… hotels for our diverse native wildlife that helps them thrive. The way they are designed attracts them to the nesting boxes.

Tasmania’s midlands is recognised as a Biodiversity Hotspot, one of the most important parts of Australia for species diversity, and one of fifteen recognised across Australia.

Agricultural and cropping activities over the last 200 years have caused dramatic changes to 80% of the landscape in the midlands, causing the grassy woodlands to all but disappear, affecting many of our unique animals, birds and insects. The native landscape is in patches, removing safe corridors for the the fauna to move about, affecting their hunting grounds and mating environments.

The Species Hotels project is a collaboration between Greening Australia and the University of Tasmania’s School of Architecture and Design, School of Land and Food, School of Creative Arts and the ARC Centre for Forest Value. As part of the project, first year Architecture and Design students created a series of ‘hotels’ in 2016 to help restore habitats for local wildlife. The various sculptures are located along the banks of the Macquarie River in Ross and are carefully designed and constructed to encourage wildlife to nest. Different species considered at the time of their creation included Woodland birds, Micro-bats, Native Bees, Eastern Quoll, Tasmanian Devil and Eastern Barred Bandicoot.

The project has created a number of wonderful structures for the animals, birds, and insects to use, providing shelter and access to food.

In 2019, five new hotels were donated and introduced to the environment. The University’s Discipline of Architecture and Design intends to introduce further Species Hotels into the future as their knowledge expands.