Free-Standing Electric Fencing – Wooden Poles

Eucalyptus poles are pressure-treated with CCA or creosote preservative so the sapwood resists rot, fungi and termites. Treated poles last many times longer in the ground than untreated timber.

Large-diameter strainer poles go in at corners, gates and long straights, braced with stays to take the wire tension. Smaller line poles are set between them, typically buried 0.6–0.9 m deep depending on soil and fence height.

Wood is not a reliable insulator — especially when wet — so every live strand is carried on proper insulators nailed or screwed to the pole. This keeps the pulse in the wire and prevents leakage into the pole.

An IEC 60335-2-76 certified energizer, mains or solar, pulses the fence about once per second. A contact gives a sharp, non-lethal shock, and a cut or shorted wire triggers the energizer's alarm output.