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I have a question regarding the use of hedges (Buxus) as a safety barrier in a garden to mitigate the risk of a drop height.
We live in a row of townhouses, each with a small section of private garden in front of the building envelope for each house. In front of the townhouses is a much larger common garden area. This larger common area is below the private garden areas. The entire property is built on sandstone and slopes down to the water.
In front of one of the townhouse private garden areas there is a 2.4m drop (natural sandstone and natural slope) onto soft grass in the common garden area. It has been suggested by some members of the owners committee that we need to install a glass balustrade for safety. A counter proposal has been put forward to plant a Buxus hedge 500mm deep and 8-900mm high to act as a barrier. This was dismissed by some as not compliant.
The only applicable codes we can find regarding barriers for fall safety are the Building Code Ref: D3D17 Barriers to prevent falls 2019: D2.16(a), (b) and (c) and Walking Tracks Part 2: Infrastructure AS 2156.2 Section 3
Our question is whether or not a planted hedge is acceptable as a safety barrier in a garden area to provide a reasonably practicable mitigation for fall height given the two codes cited above?
An additional option we have considered, is the construction of a raised garden bed with sleepers on the grassed area below to reduce the fall height. I would also welcome your thoughts on this option, potentially in combination with the hedge.
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I don’t know for sure but I would guess that you could have a wire mesh fence against which you grow a hedge so that the fence becomes invisible over time. That would be a barrier from day 1 without needing to wait for the hedge to grow but eventually you would not see the fence that would be buried inside the hedge.
The strata committee should arrange a report into Work Health and Safety from a reputable safety company (eg “BIV” is the biggest company doing this), to advise on the risk and how to avoid it. This determines if the risk is significant. A hedge takes time to grow, so a temporary solution may be needed until it reaches a good height. Providing a WH&S report is normally an agenda item for each strata AGM.
Otherwise a consulting engineer, knowledgeable about safety, could be engaged to provide potential solutions.
This is normally not a thing you should guess at, unless the solution you come up with will clearly mitigate the problem. I think a drop of 2.4m is high, and the building code may have some specific requirements, like a fixed balustrade. It will also depend on if the drop is on lot property, or common property, and who has access to the area. Get expert advice!
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