Very soft deposits such as peat, marine clays and tin mining slime are found extensively in Malaysia. Severe problems are encountered when filling over such deposits. Woven and nonwoven geotextiles have been used to assist in fill deposition over such very soft deposits. This paper describes the desired properties of geotextiles for this purpose, methods of placing the geotextile and deposition of the fill. A nonwoven geotextile with a bamboo fascine mattress is found to be most effective.