A new build next door, a deck with a perfect view of your pool, a bathroom window facing your bedroom: the two-storey overlooking problem is now the most common privacy question in Australian suburbs. Standard hedges top out too low, too slowly. Here's what actually reaches.
The physics of the problem
To block a first-floor window you generally need 4–6 m of green, and you need it near your boundary, not theirs. That rules out most classic hedging and puts you in tall-screen territory: clumping bamboo, the big lilly pillies, sweet viburnum let go tall, or weeping waterhousea for the deluxe version.
The candidates
Slender Weavers Bamboo — the specialist. Six metres, two to three seasons, 40 cm of bed width, strictly clumping. When the window is close to the fence, nothing else combines the height with the footprint. Full comparison in bamboo vs hedges.
Sweet Viburnum — the budget tower. Unclipped, it happily reaches 4–5 m, and it's the cheapest fast height in the nursery. Looser look; give it a metre of depth.
Lilly Pilly Backyard Bliss — the tidy tall native. Dense to the ground at 3.5–4 m, glossy, clip-or-not. The pick when the screen is also the backdrop to your entertaining area.
Waterhousea Green Avenue — the premium curtain. A weeping evergreen native that makes a soft 5–8 m veil. Advanced sizes buy near-instant relief on the worst sight-line.
Do this, not that
Plant a metre inside the boundary (canopy on your side, no disputes), start from 300 mm or larger for a two-summer result, and screen the sight-line, not the whole fence — usually 4–8 m of planting placed exactly between window and target beats 30 m of hedge. Stand where you feel watched, sight the offending window, and mark the line: that's the bed.
Ready-made answer
The pack below screens a typical 6–8 m sight-line with bamboo for the closest fence run, viburnum and lilly pilly for the wider flanks, and two waterhousea for the worst spot. Adjust in the garden pricer, exact-count any hedge run with the hedge calculator, and if digging isn't your weekend plan, professional planting is offered in the cart.