Protect your delicious, homegrown fruit crops with our netted orchard structures.
One of the key permaculture principles is “obtain a yield”. Protecting your home-grown fruit from Melbourne’s wildlife can be very challenging, if not impossible. Possums, fruit bats, and parrots will all enthusiastically devour fruit crops the day before you’re ready to pick them. All year round, Kangaroos and deer browse on foliage and damage fruit trees. We have the answer to your fruit and leaf eating problems. Prevent wildlife from damaging your backyard orchard ever again, with one of our permanent orchard netted structures.
These structures are the key to low-maintenance, and wildlife friendly crop protection. Forget about tangled nets, and having to remember to put them up and take them down each year. Forget about wildlife getting tangled. Our netted structures are carefully designed and built to ensure that you face none of these problems.
Accessing your trees, to pick fruit, to prune or to inspect them is easy. As a large walk in netted structure you no longer need to worry about climbing up into nets and getting tangled. Think of them like a giant anti-aviary.
Using 40mm diameter chicken wire excludes parrots, cockatoos, blackbirds, mynahs and other destructive birds but allows smaller insectivorous birds to enter and manage insect pests.
Our netted crop protection structures are designed to last. The fruit tree bird netting is guaranteed by the manufacturer for 10 years and is fully complaint with Victoria’s current bird netting regulations. We use high-quality, Australian-made galvanised steel mesh for the walls.
Your enclosure will be fully fox and rabbit proof and so you can integrate small livestock such as chickens, ducks, quail and guinea pigs into the system. They also make ideal cat runs.
Standard widths for the netted structures are 6, 8 and 10m spans (or wider using combinations thereof) and can be made to any length. We can also arrange for smaller custom netted enclosures for suburban backyard orchards.
10 x 10 metre
Melbourne Metro Area only. Add $3300 for Regional Victoria installations-
One 1200mm pedestrian gate (extra, or larger gates can be arranged)
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Fully installed, ready to plant
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Includes GST
10 x 20 metre
Melbourne Metro Area only. Add $3800 for Regional Victoria installations-
One 1200mm pedestrian gate (extra, or larger gates can be arranged)
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Fully installed, ready to plant
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Includes GST
10 x 30 metre
Melbourne Metro Area only. Add $4300 for Regional Victoria installations-
One 1200mm pedestrian gate (extra, or larger gates can be arranged)
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Fully installed, ready to plant
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Includes GST
Extra costs associated with installation:
- Steep Slopes
- Poor access
- Installation over already established trees
- Larger or extra gates (one 1200mm pedestrian gate is included in the cost)
- Rocky soil
"We had a fruit tree enclosure installed last week and I couldn’t recommend Duncan and the installation team (Dean, Danny and Troy) enough. Everyone was friendly and approachable and we were given so much free information on the best way to plant our fruit trees. We are excited to get our orchard and chickens into their new home. Thanks guys."
Melissa Ryan, Wallington
Fill out the contact form below with your details and we will be in contact to discuss your netted orchard structure shortly.
Frequently Asked Questions
What sorts of pests do the netted structures exclude?
Our backyard orchard netted enclosures will exclude rabbits, foxes, bats, parrots, cockatoos, deer, kangaroos and possums. Using a 40mm diameter wire mesh on the walls, allows smaller birds such as fairy wrens, pardalotes, spinebills and small honeyeaters to easily enter the enclosure and control any insect pests. Honeybees and native bees can also easily enter the enclosure and perform the pollination of your fruit trees.
What locations can you install them in?
Our installation team are based in Melbourne but will travel anywhere in Victoria to install our fruit tree protection systems.
Do the netted enclosures need a building permit?
You should always check this with your local council. However, we’ve had lengthy discussions with several different Melbourne councils now, and in each instance, they have agreed that a building permit is not required.
What happens if wildlife are caught?
We use a long-lasting, wildlife-friendly bird netting that is compliant with the Victorian Bird Netting Regulations. We install the net so that it is very taut and this prevents wildlife from getting tangled in it. If they do accidentally encounter the netting they simply bounce of, recover and continue their journey. We have never yet had wildlife caught in our netting.
Do you install custom sized enclosures?
We try to keep costs down by making three standard sized enclosures. We can reduce the width from 10 metres down to either 6 or 8 metres by using narrower hoops. The costing options for these narrower enclosures is the same as the 10 metre wide structures.
We can also arrange to shorten the length of the 20 or 30 metres structures. Costing remains the same as the next size up. Eg a 10 x 24 metre structure is possible and costs the same as a 10 x 30m structure.
Any structure smaller than 10 x 10 metres, or wider than 10 metres is not cost effective to install using our systems.
Do bees still have access to pollinate the trees?
Honey bees and native bees can easily enter the enclosure, to perform pollination of your fruit trees.
Can I keep my chickens in these netted structures?
You sure can! Our netted structures are fox proof, making them ideal for housing poultry and other small animals such as guinea pigs. Please note however, that often chickens and fruit trees don’t mix very well. Chickens like to scratch and can be very destructive to root systems. This post gives some ideas on how to limit the damage caused by chickens.
Do you sell DIY kits?
No we don’t. Installing these structures requires specialist equipment and it is not recommended for DIY due to safety reasons. We take pride in the quality of our workmanship and our experience allows us to deliver an exceptional product for our clients.
I’m interested in more information on having one of these installed, do you come out to give advice on locating them?
We don’t normally need to arrange as site visit before installation. Usually we can arrange everything over the phone. However, if you have a particularly unique site, with certain challenges, we may need to visit. Also, if you’re not quite sure of the best location within your property we can help you analyse the site and help with the decision making. Find out more about our site consultations here.
Why is it more expensive to install in Regional Victoria?
It takes our team a week (sometimes longer) to install each structure. We need to factor in accommodation, travel costs, meals and living away from home allowances for all of our valued staff members who are based in Melbourne.
Do you operate interstate?
No, we do not operate interstate and we are not aware of anyone else installing similar structures interstate.