Mitchell Lyons 
A Camberwell homeowner had scratching above the bedroom and assumed it was in the roof. It wasn't. A brushtail had got into the wall cavity through a gap where the old brick veneer met the eaves, so the fix was sealing that junction, not the roof space.
What she heard
Scratching above the bedroom. Every night, around dusk. She’d already had someone out who told her it was in the roof and quoted to go up in the roof space. Fair call. Noise was right there above the ceiling.
But the roof space was clean. No droppings, no rub marks, nothing. If a possum’s living up there, you know about it. There was none of it.
Where it actually was
Had a look outside. Camberwell, pre-war brick veneer, the junction where the brick meets the eaves had opened up. Mortar goes, timber moves, you get a gap. This one had a gap behind the spouting you could get a fist through. You’d never see it from the ground.
She wasn’t in the roof at all. Wall cavity. Coming and going through that gap, sitting right behind the bedroom plaster. That’s why it was so loud.
What we did
One-way door over the gap. She gets out, can’t get back in. We don’t trap, don’t relocate.
Once she’d gone we sealed the junction. Steel mesh fixed into the timber. Not foam. Foam lasts a winter if you’re lucky. A possum will push through it in a night.
Checked the rest of the roofline while we were up there. Found two more soft spots. Did them too.
The bit most people get wrong
If the noise is loud and low, like it’s at head height, think wall cavity. Not roof. People pay to have the roof space done and the possum was never up there. Find the actual entry first.
