Noise Barriers and Bird Attracting

17 years ago

Hello all,

Hoping someone is able to help me. I have just purchased my first home, and we have a large block 1029m2 backing onto a main road. We are close to shopping centres and schools and would like to have some nice Natives that will act as a privacy and noise barrier.

I've tried to look around, but haven't had much success. Brisbane at the moment is planning to go on level 6 water restrictions, so I am sure that the Gold Coast will not be far behind.

We have a 6ft Timber fence all around, and I would like the trees to just grow to above that.

Is anyone able to suggest some lovely natives that would encourage bird life, but also help against unwelcome visitors and noise?

Thank you so much

Kellie

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Comments (8)

gardenlen
17 years ago
g'day kellie,

callistimons & maleleuca's come to mind, they can be planted reasonably close together, and you have a wide range of varieties different flower colourings and different hieghts should be good road pollution traps and noise barriers.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page
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trish_g
17 years ago
Hi Kellie,
Well, prickles do discourage unwelcome visitors, and make nice safe nesting sites. How about some of these:
Native Lime (Citrus australasica) has pretty and useful fruit. Bursaria (Bursaria spinosa) has masses of very sweet-smelling white flowers around Australia Day. These are very attractive to butterflies and other insects. (DonÂt forget, there are birds of other kinds than honey-eaters. Insect-attracting shrubs also attract birds to eat them.)
Chain-fruit (Alyxia ruscifolia) is a lower shrub in the open but gets to your required height if close-grown. Interesting fruits, and excellent insect-attracting perfumed flowers on this one, too. Bumble-trees (Capparis species) attract caper-white butterflies (en masse). These are a favourite food of blue wrens.
Kunkerberry (Carissa ovata) has yummy little black "currants". YouÂre lucky to get to eat any, though, as the birds love them. Our "bird-attracting" gardens do over-focus a little on feeding the honey-eaters. Something for the fruit-eaters adds balance.
Native Hibiscus tends to be scratchy rather than prickly, but is definitely a discouraging plant! However, there are non-prickly varieties now becoming available, if you want the flowers but think this collection of pricklies is getting all a bit too much!
Cheers, Trish
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kells
Original Author
17 years ago
thank you so much len and trish, this will give me a great starting point.

it really upsets me that there is so much tree clearing, id like to be able to do my little bit to provide some yummy food for wild life... as well as keep troublesome people away :D
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gardenlen
17 years ago
g'day kell,

they mentioned some nice spikey natives on ga this week (guess its last fridays show i saw yesterday?). maybe thing about the native citrus finger lime are very edible off the bush and the bush is very spikey. also some of the mal's and i think some of the grevilleas have spikey leaves so they all make good habitat for the little birds.

len
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Rose_Qld
17 years ago
Hi Kellie
Some of my personal favourites mentioned above.

Sometimes a problem can be sourcing the less mainstream natives. I haven't been to Nielsen's native nursery yet, but do look in at their website occasionally. Note the emu bush (April 2007 featured plant).

Cheers
Rose

Here is a link that might be useful: nielsens
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gardenlen
17 years ago
g'day rose,

are neilsen's still operating?

i sent them an e/mail from their site page and it bounced or they simply didn't bother to reply?

there are some particular natives i want, so thought best to ask if and when they may have them in stock before facing the mayhem of traffic from the southern side of the gateway down to the g.c area, doesn't matter how many traffic lanes they create chaos rules supreme.

anyhow guess we'll have to try and ring them next?

len
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Rose_Qld
17 years ago
Actually, len, that I don't know. Guess it's a risky assumption to make of any nursery around Brisbane these days. I remember emailing Fitzroy nurseries once and no response though they were functioning as always.
Rose
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scubamid
17 years ago
I am sure your have great nurseries down south there for the natives but if you need to check out further afield you could try Yuruga Nursery near Mareeba. http://www.yuruga.com.au/
They have a small number of interesting articles on their site.
Cheers
Judy
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Noise Barriers and Bird Attracting

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