The cute possums were spotted by chance earlier this month huddled tightly together, by a Country Energy worker who was about to pull the pole down on Tea Gardens Road, not far from the Pacific Highway at Tea Gardens.

The pole forms part of a major powerline serving the Tea Gardens area.

The family was living in a 15 centimetre gap between a metal cover and the timber base of the pole.

Country Energy spokeswoman Nicole Cook said that it is believed the family includes two adult sugar gliders and two babies, possibly twins.

"Our design project manager who stumbled across them tried not to disturb them once he saw them," Ms Cook said.

"Because the babies are young, the company has chosen not to remove them immediately.

"We are liasing with WIRES and National Parks and Wildlife, who will relocate the family when the time is right."

It is uncommon for sugar gliders to live at ground level because they rarely descend for food.

They usually nest in a hollow of a tree, or in a nest made of twigs and leaves.

Sugar gliders are nocturnal marsupial mammals that feed on nectar, insect and the sap of eucalyptus trees.

The species is quite common and is distributed in northern and eastern

Australia, northern Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, NSW, Victoria, Tasmania and south-eastern South Australia.