Problem Hedges Australia is a community action group created in February 2006 by Julie Giannesini in order to bring about legislative control of problem high hedges of all types. After a neighbour stopped trimming a hedge of Leighton Greens rapidly approaching 7 metres on her northern boundary (and the refusal of mediation) Julie was devastated to find that there was no legislative means of controlling the heights of so called ‘spite’ hedges. Further research unearthed the inadequacy of Australian law to deal with such an issue either at the local or state level. After meeting other people with the same problem in the area it was decided to create a resident action group to attempt to bring about legislation to protect those whose amenity is affected by high hedges along the same lines as recent legislation in the UK. The group currently has 60 affected members from as far as Kiama on the South Coast, the Central Coast in the North and Leura in the west.



Hedgewise is a community group formed by Jan Hainke in October 2003 in the Southern Highlands of NSW. Those present at the first meeting were very concerned about the proliferation and excessive planting of Leighton Green hedges in both residential and rural settings. They defined their goals as raising awareness at local council level and in the community and broadened their sights to include “inappropriate planting of any high hedges”.

They were aware of the UK group Hedgeline which was lobbying the UK Government to address the growing number of neighbour disputes in Britain due to these monster hedges.

Hedgewise is now focusing on Leighton Green hedges because these hedges are the ones currently being planted excessively and which are so large at maturity. This species is also known as Cypress leylandii. We believe that both education and legislation is required, regarding this species and other inappropriate trees, and are working with their local council towards this end.
To this end Hedgewise has created and distributed a brochure entitled
“What’s the Problem?”