See also: Wood Timber Treatment
Fence Functions Stacking
The aim of the fence is to serve multiple functions:
- Livestock: keep in livestock, keep out pests.
- Security Perimeter: keep out vehicles and people. Mount cameras and boundary sensors on posts.
- Green Fence: enabling productive vines to climb fence posts to bear edible fruit or livestock fodder. Support/guide thorny bushes as a naturally growing deterrent.
- Fog Water Harvesting: very tall posts netted to capture and pipe to water tanks.
- Bird/Bat Houses: habitats on tall posts for population of small/large birds/bats.
- Bird Perches: for kookaburras and smaller birds as active pest control of rodents, mosquitoes, snakes, spiders.
- Bird/Bat Fertiliser: perches harvest phosphorus fertiliser as birds take initial flight from perches, they generally deposit bird poo below. Similarly bat houses offer Guano, bat poo high in nitrogen, phosphate and potassium.
- Native Bee Hotels: habitats erected on posts enabling native bee population for plant pollination and as decoys for honey bees predation.
Fence Post Heights
Assuming each fence posts is embedded at least 1m inground with a gravel + cement/sand mix tampered down; then coned up above ground around the post base to shed water away.
| Function | Height above ground (m) | Post Length (m) | Notes |
| Livestock | 1.5 | 2.5 | For goat, horse or wallaby proofing. |
| Security Camera | 2.5 | 3.5 | In general, most security companies recommend installing cameras at a height of 2.5m (8 feet). |
Log Post & Rail Fence
A post and rail fence may offer the simplest and quickest fence using onsite materials.
- Posts
- Spaced 4m apart, farm gate width.
- Length: see Fence Post Heights
- Diameter:
- 3 Rails:
- Diameter: approx 10cm
- 6.2m long, or double the post-to-post length to span across posts.
Fencing Skills
Stiff stay Horse Mesh, with 10 line wires, with only 5cm spacing between wire pickets. Avoids trapping hooves.
Setup stable ground logs to,
- prop up logs at a comfortable height.
- Set apart for the length you want for posts, to make cutting quicker.
- Notch to hold logs in place