Vetiver Grass Hedgerows - Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia

Newly planted vetiver in 2002. The soils are black cracking soils that are very erosive under flooding conditions. Vetiver hedge barriers slow down the flood flow, spread out any flow concentrations and filter out sediment as shown in the picture below (see sediment deposition on right hand side of hedge. These narrow vetiver hedgrows replace wide fallow buffer strips that took as much as 30% of the land out of cultivation in any one year.