Sydney sandstone
Encyclopedia
Sydney sandstone is the common name for Sydney Basin
Hawkesbury Sandstone, historically known as Yellowblock, is a sedimentary rock
named after the Hawkesbury River
north of Sydney, where this sandstone
is particularly common.
It forms the bedrock
for much of the region of Sydney, Australia. Well known for its durable quality, it is the reason many Aboriginal
rock carvings and drawings in the area still exist. As a highly favoured building material, especially preferred during the city's early years—from the late 1790s to the 1890s
—its use, particularly in public buildings, gives the city its distinctive appearance.
The stone
is notable for its geological characteristics; its relationship to Sydney's vegetation
and topography
; the history of the quarries
that worked it; and the quality of the buildings and sculptures constructed from it. This bedrock
gives the city some of its 'personality' by dint of its meteorological, horticultural, aesthetic and historical impact. One author
describes Sydney's sandstone as "a kind of base note, an ever-present reminder of its Georgian beginnings and more ancient past."
which controls the erosion and scarp retreat of the Illawarra escarpment
. Six kilometres of sandstone and shale lie under Sydney. In Sydney sandstone, the ripple marks from the ancient river that brought the grains of sand are distinctive and easily seen, telling geologists that the sand comes from rocks formed between 500 to 700 million years ago far to the south. This means that the highest part of the visible lines almost always faces approximately south. It is a very porous stone and acts as a giant filter. It is composed of very pure silica
grains and a small amount of the iron mineral siderite
in varying proportions, bound with a clay matrix. It oxidises to the warm yellow-brown colour that is notable in the buildings which are constructed of it.
The sand was washed from Broken Hill, and laid down in a bed that is about 200 metres thick. Currents washed through it, leaching out most of the minerals and leaving a very poor rock
that made an insipid soil
. They washed out channels
in some places, while in others, the currents formed sand banks that show a characteristic current bedding or cross-bedding that can often be seen in cuttings.
At a time in the past, monocline formed to the west of Sydney. The monocline is a sloping bend that raises the sandstone well above where it is expected to be seen, and this is why the whole of the visible top of the Blue Mountains is made of sandstone.
From the beginnings of the colony in 1788, settlers and convicts had to work with the stone, using it for building and trying to grow crops on the soil over it. The sandstone had a negative effect on farming because it underlay most of the available flat land at a very shallow depth.
In the late nineteenth century, it was thought that the sandstone might contain gold
. Some efforts were made at the University
to test this idea. Reporting on them in 1892, Professor Liversidge said "The Hawkesbury sandstone and Waianamatta shale was, of course, derived from older and probably gold-bearing rocks hence it was not unreasonable to expect to find gold in them."
The sandstone is the basis the nutrient-poor soils found in Sydney that developed over millennia and 'came to nurture a brilliant and immensely diverse array of plants'. It is, for example, the "heartland of those most characteristic of Australian trees, the eucalypts
". As plants cannot afford to lose leaves to herbivores when nutrients are scarce so they defend their foliage with toxins. In eucalypts, these toxins give the bush its distinctive smell.
Sandstone escarpments box in the Sydney area on three sides: to the west the Blue Mountains, and to the north and south, the Hornsby and Woronora plateaux'. These escarpments, avoided by the early settlers, kept Sydney in its bounds and some people still regard the spatial boundaries of the city in these terms.
Other rock types found in Sydney include Narrabeen shale and the younger Wianamatta shale
and Mittagong formation
.
where there were at least 22 quarrymen working by 1858. Among them was Charles Saunders, licensee of the hotel 'The Quarryman's Arms' who became Pyrmont's biggest quarrymaster. Pyrmont yellowblock not only had good hardness, texture, and color, it was also suitable for carving and so it could be incorporated into buildings in the form of sculptures and finely carved details. The sculptor, William Priestly Macintosh, for example, carved ten of the explorers' statues for the niches in the Lands Department building in "Pyrmont Freestone".
Saunders' quarries, known locally as Paradise, Purgatory. and Hellhole, were so named by the Scottish quarrymen who worked there in the 1850s. The names related to the degree of difficulty in working the stone and its quality. The best stone was 'Paradise', a soft rock that is easy to carve and weathers to a warm, golden straw colour. The Paradise quarry was near present-day Jones and Saunders Streets, Purgatory quarry was off Crown Road in Ultimo
, near present-day Pyrmont Bridge Road, and Hellhole was where Jones Street now is, near Fig Street. Before World War I
, quarries opened up in other Sydney suburbs, such as Botany
, Randwick
, Paddington
and Waverley
.
The men who worked the stone were highly skilled and organised. Their trade union was the first in the world to win the eight-hour working day in 1855. The daily wages for quarrymen and masons in 1868 has been cited as ten shillings
, while labourers earned seven to eight shillings per day at that time.
,Stonecutters were subject to a range of lung diseases such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and a disease known as "stonemasons' phthisis" which was suspected to be a form of tuberculosis
. In 1908 questions were asked in the Legislative Assembly in the parliament of New South Wales about how likely the men cutting sandstone in Sydney were to contracting the disease and whether the Government should grant medical aid to them.
The early administrators sent groups of prisoners to an area nearby, named The Rocks
, to eke out what ever existence they could from the land and build housing for themselves. These first occupants hewed out sandstone from the outcrops and built simple houses. Convicts were also employed tunnelling through what is called the 'Argyle Cut' in The Rocks. The rock was dumped in the mangrove
swamps at the head of the Tank Stream
to begin to make Circular Quay. Later development in The Rocks area led to bond stores and warehouse
s being built on the bay, with better housing and pubs for entertainment. Millions of cubic feet of sandstone was excavated from Sydney's Cockatoo Island to create a dry dock on the island.
Demand for Pyrmont stone surged in the years following the gold rush
when prosperity meant that many public and private buildings were constructed. From the 1870s, various building sites had up to 300 masons working and carving the stone. Historians have reported that during this period, there were more masons working in Sydney that the whole of Europe. It was estimated that by 1928 total production of dressed sandstone from Pyrmont was more than half a million cubic yards (about 460,000 cubic metres) and much was carted away to build other places.
was 2.57 tons per square inch, or 39.9 megapascals (MPa). The crushing strength for ashlar
masonry and lintels
averaged 4,600 pounds per square inch (31.7 MPa). Recent tests have recorded compressive strengths of up to 70 MPa. In fire resistance tests, designed to assess the resistance to collapse of a building in a fire, the sandstone came through better than some of the very hard stones, especially the granite
s. (The stone was subjected to temperatures approaching 800 degrees Celsius, for 15–30 minutes and plunged into cold water.)
where some 50 quarries operated. In 1909, for example, when an enquiry was undertaken about remodelling the Parliamentary
Buildings in Macquarie Street
it was reported that "the external work, excepting the southern flank, was to be carried out in Sydney sandstone and the main flight of steps in stone obtained from the Purgatory quarry". Many of Sydney's early sandstone buildings remain but many have been demolished. Demolished buildings include: Vickery's Warehouse, Pitt Street; Robert C. Swan & Co warehouse, Pitt Street, Mason Bros stores, Spring Street; Harrison Jones & Devlin warehouse, Macquarie Place; Mutual Life building, George Street; The Union Club, Bligh Street.
, for example, a grand and ornate building occupying an entire Sydney block and faced with Pyrmont stone, was threatened with demolition and replacement by a car park. A great debate among supporters and opponents of demolition followed. One architect, Elias Duek-Cohen, referred to its material in his defence of the building: 'It has a fine facade in warm-coloured stone ... forming a richly modelled surface'. Demolition of sandstone buildings in The Rocks
was forestalled in part because of a Green Ban
.
A revival began when the heritage value of these older buildings was recognised.
Contemporary reports have noted the contribution of sandstone quarrying to ecological degradation. "Sandstone quarrying is very detrimental to native flora and fauna. It destroys habitat, alters landform, drainage and soil conditions, creates waste pollution, and usually generates noise and dust ... Existing features ... can be removed or obliterated,
and local waterways affected by sedimentation. More widely, the extraction and processing of sandstone requires considerable energy, with its related environmental impacts." The impact on the Pyrmont peninsula has been described as an example of "systematic destruction of ecology in favour of economy ... The peninsula may be an extreme example of what happens
when ‘progress’, ‘development’, ‘economic growth’ take the box seats of society."
In spite of the shortages, the revived industry continues to quarry, process, and supply the stone for building, landscaping, commercial, and conservation work in Australia and there are public courses available in Stonemasonry
. It is now also used as a contemporary building material in major constructions and restorations such as Governor Phillip Tower and the Commemorative Museum, winning international architectural awards for excellence. Architects, such as the Robin Boyd Award
winner Graham Jahn, describe Sydney's sandstone buildings as "wonderful".
Sculptural uses of Sydney sandstone make aesthetic and symbolic use of the material's connection with Sydney's geology as well as its flora and fauna. For example, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
commissioned sculptor Chris Booth to design a living sculpture for its grounds (scheduled to be finished by the end of 2010). One of the two main pieces of the sculpture is a 'sandstone wave', consisting of about 200 tonnes of sandstone blocks in an undulating form reminiscent of the tectonic forces that created the stone. The sculptor says the design is 'inspired by the sandstone stratas it emerges out of and, of course, the link to the sea which it cascades towards ... its evolution is from the geomorphology.'
, a stone from Pennsylvania with a comparable cultural history
Sydney Basin
The Sydney Basin is a sedimentary basin on the east coast of New South Wales, Australia consisting of Permian and Triassic sedimentary rocks...
Hawkesbury Sandstone, historically known as Yellowblock, is a sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock are types of rock that are formed by the deposition of material at the Earth's surface and within bodies of water. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause mineral and/or organic particles to settle and accumulate or minerals to precipitate from a solution....
named after the Hawkesbury River
Hawkesbury River
The Hawkesbury River, also known as Deerubbun, is one of the major rivers of the coastal region of New South Wales, Australia. The Hawkesbury River and its tributaries virtually encircle the metropolitan region of Sydney.-Geography:-Course:...
north of Sydney, where this sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
is particularly common.
It forms the bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
for much of the region of Sydney, Australia. Well known for its durable quality, it is the reason many Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
rock carvings and drawings in the area still exist. As a highly favoured building material, especially preferred during the city's early years—from the late 1790s to the 1890s
1890s
The 1890s were sometimes referred to as the "Mauve Decade" - because William Henry Perkin's aniline dye allowed the widespread use of that colour in fashion - and also as the "Gay Nineties", under the then-current usage of the word "gay" which referred simply to merriment and frivolity, with no...
—its use, particularly in public buildings, gives the city its distinctive appearance.
The stone
STONe
is a Japanese manga written and illustrated by Sin-Ichi Hiromoto. Kodansha released the two bound volumes of the manga on April 23, 2002 and August 23, 2002, respectively.The manga is licensed for an English-languague released in North America be Tokyopop...
is notable for its geological characteristics; its relationship to Sydney's vegetation
Vegetation
Vegetation is a general term for the plant life of a region; it refers to the ground cover provided by plants. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader...
and topography
Topography
Topography is the study of Earth's surface shape and features or those ofplanets, moons, and asteroids...
; the history of the quarries
Quarries
Quarries - The "Royal Quarries" — not found in Scripture — is the namegiven to the vast caverns stretching far underneath the northern hill, Bezetha, on which Jerusalem is built. Out of these mammoth caverns stones, a hard limestone, have been quarried in ancient times for the buildings in the...
that worked it; and the quality of the buildings and sculptures constructed from it. This bedrock
Bedrock
In stratigraphy, bedrock is the native consolidated rock underlying the surface of a terrestrial planet, usually the Earth. Above the bedrock is usually an area of broken and weathered unconsolidated rock in the basal subsoil...
gives the city some of its 'personality' by dint of its meteorological, horticultural, aesthetic and historical impact. One author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
describes Sydney's sandstone as "a kind of base note, an ever-present reminder of its Georgian beginnings and more ancient past."
Geology, vegetation, topography
Sydney sandstone dates from the Triassic Period and is the caprockCaprock
The Caprock is a region in the Panhandle of Texas . It is the land to the west of the Caprock Escarpment, which separates it from plains stretching to the east at a much lower elevation....
which controls the erosion and scarp retreat of the Illawarra escarpment
Illawarra escarpment
The Illawarra Escarpment is the fold created cliffs and plateau eroded outcrop mountain range west of the Illawarra coastal plain south of Sydney, Australia, enclosing the region known as the Illawarra which stretches from Stanwell Park in the north to Kiama, Gerringong and the Shoalhaven river in...
. Six kilometres of sandstone and shale lie under Sydney. In Sydney sandstone, the ripple marks from the ancient river that brought the grains of sand are distinctive and easily seen, telling geologists that the sand comes from rocks formed between 500 to 700 million years ago far to the south. This means that the highest part of the visible lines almost always faces approximately south. It is a very porous stone and acts as a giant filter. It is composed of very pure silica
Silicon dioxide
The chemical compound silicon dioxide, also known as silica , is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula '. It has been known for its hardness since antiquity...
grains and a small amount of the iron mineral siderite
Siderite
Siderite is a mineral composed of iron carbonate FeCO3. It takes its name from the Greek word σίδηρος sideros, “iron”. It is a valuable iron mineral, since it is 48% iron and contains no sulfur or phosphorus...
in varying proportions, bound with a clay matrix. It oxidises to the warm yellow-brown colour that is notable in the buildings which are constructed of it.
The sand was washed from Broken Hill, and laid down in a bed that is about 200 metres thick. Currents washed through it, leaching out most of the minerals and leaving a very poor rock
Rock (geology)
In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...
that made an insipid soil
Soil
Soil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics...
. They washed out channels
Channel (geography)
In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or human-made deeper course through a reef, sand bar, bay, or any shallow body of water...
in some places, while in others, the currents formed sand banks that show a characteristic current bedding or cross-bedding that can often be seen in cuttings.
At a time in the past, monocline formed to the west of Sydney. The monocline is a sloping bend that raises the sandstone well above where it is expected to be seen, and this is why the whole of the visible top of the Blue Mountains is made of sandstone.
From the beginnings of the colony in 1788, settlers and convicts had to work with the stone, using it for building and trying to grow crops on the soil over it. The sandstone had a negative effect on farming because it underlay most of the available flat land at a very shallow depth.
In the late nineteenth century, it was thought that the sandstone might contain gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
. Some efforts were made at the University
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
to test this idea. Reporting on them in 1892, Professor Liversidge said "The Hawkesbury sandstone and Waianamatta shale was, of course, derived from older and probably gold-bearing rocks hence it was not unreasonable to expect to find gold in them."
The sandstone is the basis the nutrient-poor soils found in Sydney that developed over millennia and 'came to nurture a brilliant and immensely diverse array of plants'. It is, for example, the "heartland of those most characteristic of Australian trees, the eucalypts
Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia...
". As plants cannot afford to lose leaves to herbivores when nutrients are scarce so they defend their foliage with toxins. In eucalypts, these toxins give the bush its distinctive smell.
Sandstone escarpments box in the Sydney area on three sides: to the west the Blue Mountains, and to the north and south, the Hornsby and Woronora plateaux'. These escarpments, avoided by the early settlers, kept Sydney in its bounds and some people still regard the spatial boundaries of the city in these terms.
Other rock types found in Sydney include Narrabeen shale and the younger Wianamatta shale
Wianamatta shale
Wianamatta Shale is the uppermost outcropping unit in the Sydney Basin in New South Wales, Australia. It dates from the Triassic Period and generally comprises fine grained sedimentary rocks such as shales and laminites with less common sandstone units...
and Mittagong formation
Mittagong Formation
The Mittagong Formation is a type of sedimentary rock occurring in the Sydney Basin in eastern Australia. Formed in the triassic period. It may be seen as a narrow band of fine grained sandstone between the shale and the Hawkesbury sandstone . The maximum thickness is ten metres.In northern Sydney...
.
Hewing and working the stone
The quality of the sandstone known to Sydneysiders as Yellow block became well known early. Called on by the Colonial Architect, for example, to be used in the main buildings of the University of Sydney, the stone was supplied from the Pyrmont quarriesQuarry
A quarry is a type of open-pit mine from which rock or minerals are extracted. Quarries are generally used for extracting building materials, such as dimension stone, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, and gravel. They are often collocated with concrete and asphalt plants due to the requirement...
where there were at least 22 quarrymen working by 1858. Among them was Charles Saunders, licensee of the hotel 'The Quarryman's Arms' who became Pyrmont's biggest quarrymaster. Pyrmont yellowblock not only had good hardness, texture, and color, it was also suitable for carving and so it could be incorporated into buildings in the form of sculptures and finely carved details. The sculptor, William Priestly Macintosh, for example, carved ten of the explorers' statues for the niches in the Lands Department building in "Pyrmont Freestone".
Saunders' quarries, known locally as Paradise, Purgatory. and Hellhole, were so named by the Scottish quarrymen who worked there in the 1850s. The names related to the degree of difficulty in working the stone and its quality. The best stone was 'Paradise', a soft rock that is easy to carve and weathers to a warm, golden straw colour. The Paradise quarry was near present-day Jones and Saunders Streets, Purgatory quarry was off Crown Road in Ultimo
Ultimo, New South Wales
Ultimo is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Ultimo is located 2 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney....
, near present-day Pyrmont Bridge Road, and Hellhole was where Jones Street now is, near Fig Street. Before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, quarries opened up in other Sydney suburbs, such as Botany
Botany, New South Wales
Botany is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Botany is located 10 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district and is part of the City of Botany Bay....
, Randwick
Randwick, New South Wales
Randwick is a suburb in south-eastern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Randwick is located 6 kilometres south-east of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre for the local government area of the City of Randwick...
, Paddington
Paddington, New South Wales
Paddington is an inner-city, eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Paddington is located 3 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of the City of Sydney and the Municipality of Woollahra...
and Waverley
Waverley, New South Wales
Waverley is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Waverley is located 7 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Waverley Council....
.
The men who worked the stone were highly skilled and organised. Their trade union was the first in the world to win the eight-hour working day in 1855. The daily wages for quarrymen and masons in 1868 has been cited as ten shillings
Shilling (Australian)
The Australian Shilling was a coin of the Commonwealth of Australia prior to decimalization. The coin was minted from 1910 until 1963, excluding 1923, 1929, 1930, 1932, 1938, 1947, 1949 and 1951...
, while labourers earned seven to eight shillings per day at that time.
,Stonecutters were subject to a range of lung diseases such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and a disease known as "stonemasons' phthisis" which was suspected to be a form of tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
. In 1908 questions were asked in the Legislative Assembly in the parliament of New South Wales about how likely the men cutting sandstone in Sydney were to contracting the disease and whether the Government should grant medical aid to them.
Early building
The Rocks, New South Wales
The Rocks is an urban locality, tourist precinct and historic area of Sydney's city centre, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, immediately north-west of the Sydney central business district...
, to eke out what ever existence they could from the land and build housing for themselves. These first occupants hewed out sandstone from the outcrops and built simple houses. Convicts were also employed tunnelling through what is called the 'Argyle Cut' in The Rocks. The rock was dumped in the mangrove
Mangrove
Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...
swamps at the head of the Tank Stream
Tank Stream
The Tank Stream is a fresh water course which empties into Sydney Cove in New South Wales, Australia. Today it is little more than a storm water drain, but originally it was the fresh water supply for the fledgling colony of New South Wales in the late 18th century...
to begin to make Circular Quay. Later development in The Rocks area led to bond stores and warehouse
Warehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
s being built on the bay, with better housing and pubs for entertainment. Millions of cubic feet of sandstone was excavated from Sydney's Cockatoo Island to create a dry dock on the island.
In the early days settlers found at hand a convenient substitute for stone in the hardwoods, and in Sydney sandstone was so plentiful and so easily worked that no one thought of going afield to explore for something better, and even today [1915] freestone, as the sandstone is often called, is nearly everywhere employed by architects and builders.
Demand for Pyrmont stone surged in the years following the gold rush
Australian gold rushes
The Australian gold rush started in 1851 when prospector Edward Hammond Hargraves claimed the discovery of payable gold near Bathurst, New South Wales, at a site Edward Hargraves called Ophir.Eight months later, gold was found in Victoria...
when prosperity meant that many public and private buildings were constructed. From the 1870s, various building sites had up to 300 masons working and carving the stone. Historians have reported that during this period, there were more masons working in Sydney that the whole of Europe. It was estimated that by 1928 total production of dressed sandstone from Pyrmont was more than half a million cubic yards (about 460,000 cubic metres) and much was carted away to build other places.
Testing the stone
Crushing strengths and fire resistance tests carried out on Sydney sandstone showed that the compressive strengthCompressive strength
Compressive strength is the capacity of a material or structure to withstand axially directed pushing forces. When the limit of compressive strength is reached, materials are crushed. Concrete can be made to have high compressive strength, e.g...
was 2.57 tons per square inch, or 39.9 megapascals (MPa). The crushing strength for ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
masonry and lintels
Lintel (architecture)
A lintel can be a load-bearing building component, a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. It is often found over portals, doors, and windows.-Structural uses:...
averaged 4,600 pounds per square inch (31.7 MPa). Recent tests have recorded compressive strengths of up to 70 MPa. In fire resistance tests, designed to assess the resistance to collapse of a building in a fire, the sandstone came through better than some of the very hard stones, especially the granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
s. (The stone was subjected to temperatures approaching 800 degrees Celsius, for 15–30 minutes and plunged into cold water.)
Nineteenth and twentieth century architectural examples
The main public buildings in Sydney, completed from the 1850s until the 1900s were built in sandstone from PyrmontPyrmont, New South Wales
Pyrmont is an inner-city suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Pyrmont is located 2 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
where some 50 quarries operated. In 1909, for example, when an enquiry was undertaken about remodelling the Parliamentary
Parliament House, Sydney
Parliament House in Sydney is a complex of buildings housing the Parliament of New South Wales, a state of Australia. It is located on the east side of Macquarie Street in Sydney, the state capital. The facade consists of a two storey Georgian building, the oldest public building in the City of...
Buildings in Macquarie Street
Macquarie Street, Sydney
Macquarie Street is the easternmost street of Sydney's central business district. Macquarie Street extends from Hyde Park at its southern end to the Sydney Opera House at its north.-Description:...
it was reported that "the external work, excepting the southern flank, was to be carried out in Sydney sandstone and the main flight of steps in stone obtained from the Purgatory quarry". Many of Sydney's early sandstone buildings remain but many have been demolished. Demolished buildings include: Vickery's Warehouse, Pitt Street; Robert C. Swan & Co warehouse, Pitt Street, Mason Bros stores, Spring Street; Harrison Jones & Devlin warehouse, Macquarie Place; Mutual Life building, George Street; The Union Club, Bligh Street.
Places of worship
- Garrison Church, Millers Point
- Great SynagogueGreat Synagogue (Sydney)The Great Synagogue is a large synagogue in Sydney, Australia. It is located in Elizabeth Street opposite Hyde Park and extends back to Castlereagh Street.-Description and history:...
(Architect: Thomas Rowe, from 1878) - St Andrew's Cathedral (Architect: Edmund Blacket from 1868) The stone at first came from Flagstaff Hill and then later from Pyrmont.
- St Mary's CathedralSt Mary's Cathedral, SydneyThe Metropolitan Cathedral of St Mary is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney and the seat of the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell. The cathedral is dedicated to "Mary, Help of Christians", Patron of Australia...
(Architect: William Wardell from 1865) - St Stephen's Uniting Church, Sydney
- Scots Church, Sydney
- St Philip's Church, SydneySt Philip's Church, SydneySt Philip's Church, Sydney is the oldest Anglican church parish in Australia. The church is located in the Sydney CBD, between York Street, Clarence and Jamison Streets on a location known as Church Hill. St Philip's is part of the Diocese of Sydney, Australia...
(Architect: Edmund Blacket)
Educational buildings
- Newington CollegeNewington CollegeNewington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
, Stanmore, Founders Wing & Old Chapel; the colonnade, including its Waratah capitals - Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview, main building,
- St Joseph's College, Hunters Hill main building and Chapel
- Sydney Grammar SchoolSydney Grammar SchoolSydney Grammar School is an independent, non-denominational, selective, day school for boys, located in Darlinghurst, Edgecliff and St Ives, all suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
, cladding for enlargement (Architect: Edmund Blacket from 1857) - University of SydneyUniversity of SydneyThe University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
original buildings - Great Hall; main quadrangle; original Fisher Library (Architects: Edmund Blacket, James Barnet and W.L. Vernon from 1868); Anderson Stuart Building; St John's CollegeSt John's College, University of Sydney]St John's College, or the College of St John the Evangelist, is a residential College within the University of Sydney.Established in 1857, the College of St John the Evangelist is the oldest Roman Catholic university college and second-oldest university college in Australia, and is one of the...
; St Andrew's CollegeSt Andrew's College, SydneySt Andrew's College is a Protestant co-residential college within the University of Sydney, in the suburb of Camperdown.-History:St Andrew's College was incorporated by Act of Parliament and received Royal Assent from Queen Victoria on 12 December 1867. The St Andrew's College Act 1998 replaced the...
; St Paul's CollegeSt. Paul's College, SydneySt Paul's College in Sydney, Australia, is an Anglican residential college for men which is affiliated with the University of Sydney. Founded in 1856 by an 1854 act of the New South Wales Legislative Council, it is Australia's oldest university college...
(Edmund Blacket from 1856)
Galleries and museums
- Art Gallery of New South WalesArt Gallery of New South WalesThe Art Gallery of New South Wales , located in The Domain in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, was established in 1897 and is the most important public gallery in Sydney and the fourth largest in Australia...
- Australian MuseumAustralian MuseumThe Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology...
(Architect: James Barnet, from 1864) - Museum of Contemporary Art, SydneyMuseum of Contemporary Art, SydneyThe Museum of Contemporary Art in Sydney, Australia is an Australian museum solely dedicated to exhibiting, interpreting and collecting contemporary art, both from across Australia and around the world...
- Museum of SydneyMuseum of SydneyThe Museum of Sydney, on the Site of First Government House is built on the ruins of the house of New South Wales' first Governor, Arthur Phillip on the present-day corner of Phillip and Bridge Street, Sydney. The original house, which was Australia's first Government House, was built in 1788 and...
Public buildings
- Callan Park Hospital for the Insane now Sydney College of the ArtsSydney College of the ArtsThe Sydney College of the Arts in Rozelle, Sydney, Australia is the visual arts faculty of the University of Sydney. It is housed in the Kirkbride complex, a cluster of sandstone buildings designed by James Barnet, the government architect in the late 19th century...
- Central railway station, SydneyCentral railway station, SydneyCentral Railway Station, the largest railway station in Australia, is at the southern end of the Sydney CBD. It services almost all the lines on the CityRail network, and is the major terminus for interurban and interstate rail services...
(Architect: W.L. Vernon, from 1902) - Chief Secretary's Building
- Customs House, SydneyCustoms House, SydneyThe Customs House is an historic Sydney landmark located in the city's Circular Quay area. Constructed initially in 1844-1845, the building served as the headquarters of the Customs Service until 1990. Ownership was then transferred from the Commonwealth Government of Australia to the City of...
(upper storey, Architect: James Barnet, from 1885) - Darlinghurst GaolDarlinghurst GaolDarlinghurst Gaol was an Australian prison located in Darlinghurst, New South Wales. The site is bordered by Victoria, Burton and Forbes streets, with entrances on Forbes and Burton Streets.-History:...
, now the National Art SchoolNational Art SchoolThe National Art School is an art school in Sydney, Australia. It is a Public Company Limited by Guarantee with a board of directors. It has Institutional Registration and Course Accreditation supported by the DET Higher Education Directorate.... - Department of Lands buildingDepartment of Lands buildingThe Department of Lands building is late nineteenth century building in Bridge Street, Sydney, designed by James Barnet. It is a large three storey public building which was built in different stages. This is the largest building designed by Barnet in Colonial Sydney. The building is listed on the...
, including the statues in the niches (Architect: James Barnet from 1876) - Department of Education Building Architect: George McRaeGeorge McRaeGeorge McRae was a Scottish architect who migrated to Australia and pursued his career in Sydney, where he became Government Architect of New South Wales.-Life and career:...
from 1912) - Frazer Fountains, one in Albert Road, the other in Hyde Park (Architect: Thomas Sapsford 1884)
- Fort Denison
- Gladesville Mental HospitalGladesville Mental HospitalGladesville Mental Hospital was a psychiatric hospital established in 1838 in the suburb of Gladesville, Sydney, Australia, its original name was Tarban Creek Lunatic Asylum.-Description and history:...
- Government House, SydneyGovernment House, SydneyGovernment House is located in Sydney, Australia alongside the Royal Botanic Gardens, overlooking Sydney Harbour, just south of the Sydney Opera House...
- General Post Office (Sydney)General Post Office (Sydney)The General Post Office is a landmark building in Sydney, Australia. It is located at the western end of Martin Place , between George and Pitt Streets. The main facade stretches some 100 metres down Martin Place...
(Architect: James Barnet, from 1864) - New South Wales Club, Bligh Street (Architect: Wardell and Vernon, 1884)
- Registrar-General's building (W.L. Vernon, architect, from 1913)
- Suspension BridgeSuspension bridgeA suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. Outside Tibet and Bhutan, where the first examples of this type of bridge were built in the 15th century, this type of bridge dates from the early 19th century...
, Northbridge - Sydney ObservatorySydney ObservatorySydney Observatory is located on a hill now known as 'Observatory Hill' in an area in the centre of Sydney. The site evolved from a fort built on 'Windmill Hill' in the early 19th century to an astronomical observatory during the nineteenth century...
- Sydney Town HallSydney Town HallThe Sydney Town Hall is a landmark sandstone building located in the heart of Sydney. It stands opposite the Queen Victoria Building and alongside St Andrew's Cathedral...
(Architect: J.H. Wilson, T.E. Bradbridge, from 1868) - "Saunders' Terrace" in Pyrmont (unknown designer, 1870s)
- Treasury building, Sydney (second stage)(Architect: W.L. Vernon from 1896)
- Victoria Barracks, SydneyVictoria Barracks, SydneyVictoria Barracks is an Australian Army base in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Victoria Barracks is located in the suburb of Paddington, between Oxford Street and Moore Park Road...
- Warehouses in The RocksThe Rocks, New South WalesThe Rocks is an urban locality, tourist precinct and historic area of Sydney's city centre, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, immediately north-west of the Sydney central business district...
Commercial buildings
- AMFI building, King and Pitt Streets ( Architect: G.A. Morell, 1881)
- AMP building, Pitt Street (architects Reed & Barnes 1860s) (now demolished)
- Burns Philp building (Architects: McCredie & Anderson, from 1898)
- City House, Pitt Street (now Skygarden complex) (Architect: G.A. Mansfield, 1893)
- Colonial Sugar refinery (Pyrmont offices) (faced with sandstone from Green's quarry at Waverley
- Queen Victoria BuildingQueen Victoria BuildingThe Queen Victoria Building, or QVB, is a late nineteenth century building by the architect George McRae in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. The Romanesque Revival building is 30 metres wide by 190 metres long, and fills a city block, bounded by George, Market, York and Druitt...
(QVB) (formerly Queen Victoria Markets) (Architect: George McRae from 1893)
Memorials
- Newington CollegeNewington CollegeNewington College is an independent, Uniting Church, day and boarding school for boys, located in Stanmore, an inner-western suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia....
Memorial to the Dead 1914-1918 designed by William Hardy WilsonWilliam Hardy WilsonWilliam Hardy Wilson was an Australian architect, artist and author. He "is regarded as one of the most outstanding architects of the twentieth century".-Early years:...
1921
Buildings outside Sydney
- Bank of AdelaideAdelaideAdelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
, South Australia - E S & A BankEnglish, Scottish and Australian BankThe English, Scottish & Australian Bank Limited was a former bank which was founded in 1852 by Royal Charter in London and was known as the English, Scottish and Australian Chartered Bank. It was merged with the Australia and New Zealand Bank in 1970....
(now called "the Gothic Bank") (Architect: William WardellWilliam WardellWilliam Wilkinson Wardell was a Civil Engineer and Architect, notable not only for his work in Australia, the country to which he emigrated in 1858, but also for having a successful career as a surveyor, and an ecclesiastical architect in England and Scotland before his departure.In Australia,...
, 1883), Melbourne - E S & A Bank, Brisbane, front facade
- National Mutual Building (now the Bank of New Zealand) (Architect: Wright, Reed and Beaver, 1903) MelbourneMelbourneMelbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
- St John's Cathedral, BrisbaneSt John's Cathedral, BrisbaneSt John's Cathedral is the Anglican cathedral of Brisbane and the metropolitan cathedral of the ecclesiastical province of Queensland, Australia...
external facings (Architect: J.L. Pearson and others, 1909–11) - St Paul's Cathedral, MelbourneSt Paul's Cathedral, MelbourneSt Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, is the metropolitical and cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne, Victoria in Australia. It is the seat of the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne and Metropolitan of the Province of Victoria...
, tower and spires (Architect: James Barr, 1926) - Union Bank, Brisbane (1916)
Changing attitudes
Quarries were being worked out by the end of the nineteenth century and cutting the stone became more difficult than before as depths increased. The combination of slowing demand and technical difficulties forced quarries out of business, although restorations and extensions of important public buildings still required Sydney sandstone. By the middle of the twentieth century, when new modern building materials, such as steel and structural reinforced concrete, had begun to be used, sandstone buildings were considered old-fashioned and many were demolished. Some gained a reprieve after much debate. The Queen Victoria BuildingQueen Victoria Building
The Queen Victoria Building, or QVB, is a late nineteenth century building by the architect George McRae in the central business district of Sydney, Australia. The Romanesque Revival building is 30 metres wide by 190 metres long, and fills a city block, bounded by George, Market, York and Druitt...
, for example, a grand and ornate building occupying an entire Sydney block and faced with Pyrmont stone, was threatened with demolition and replacement by a car park. A great debate among supporters and opponents of demolition followed. One architect, Elias Duek-Cohen, referred to its material in his defence of the building: 'It has a fine facade in warm-coloured stone ... forming a richly modelled surface'. Demolition of sandstone buildings in The Rocks
The Rocks, New South Wales
The Rocks is an urban locality, tourist precinct and historic area of Sydney's city centre, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour, immediately north-west of the Sydney central business district...
was forestalled in part because of a Green Ban
Green ban
A green ban is a form of strike action, usually taken by a trade union or other organised labour group, which is conducted for environmentalist or conservationist purposes.-Background:...
.
A revival began when the heritage value of these older buildings was recognised.
Contemporary reports have noted the contribution of sandstone quarrying to ecological degradation. "Sandstone quarrying is very detrimental to native flora and fauna. It destroys habitat, alters landform, drainage and soil conditions, creates waste pollution, and usually generates noise and dust ... Existing features ... can be removed or obliterated,
and local waterways affected by sedimentation. More widely, the extraction and processing of sandstone requires considerable energy, with its related environmental impacts." The impact on the Pyrmont peninsula has been described as an example of "systematic destruction of ecology in favour of economy ... The peninsula may be an extreme example of what happens
when ‘progress’, ‘development’, ‘economic growth’ take the box seats of society."
Contemporary use and appreciation
After the Saunders quarries closed, Pyrmont yellowblock sandstone was no longer available. Towards the end of the twentieth century, it was realised that more stone would be needed for future conservation work. The New South Wales State Government established a Centenary Stonework Program to ensure its availability. The program was also a catalyst for private projects as well as conservation and maintenance research. Even though the government rescued large blocks and stockpiled it, shortages continue because developers excavate large building sites and break the material up into unusable pieces. According to the manager for the State Government's Centenary Stonework Program, Ron Powell, "There is nothing stopping developers at all from just trashing it". In 2008, a Sydney city councillor said that planning laws stand, City of Sydney Council can allow the yellowblock to be "harvested" but cannot mandate that developers excavate the stone in a way that preserves it.In spite of the shortages, the revived industry continues to quarry, process, and supply the stone for building, landscaping, commercial, and conservation work in Australia and there are public courses available in Stonemasonry
Stonemasonry
The craft of stonemasonry has existed since the dawn of civilization - creating buildings, structures, and sculpture using stone from the earth. These materials have been used to construct many of the long-lasting, ancient monuments, artifacts, cathedrals, and cities in a wide variety of cultures...
. It is now also used as a contemporary building material in major constructions and restorations such as Governor Phillip Tower and the Commemorative Museum, winning international architectural awards for excellence. Architects, such as the Robin Boyd Award
Robin Boyd Award
The Robin Boyd Award for Residential Architecture is an Australian architectural prize presented by the Australian Institute of Architects since 1981....
winner Graham Jahn, describe Sydney's sandstone buildings as "wonderful".
Sculptural uses of Sydney sandstone make aesthetic and symbolic use of the material's connection with Sydney's geology as well as its flora and fauna. For example, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney, Australia, are the most central of the three major botanical gardens open to the public in Sydney....
commissioned sculptor Chris Booth to design a living sculpture for its grounds (scheduled to be finished by the end of 2010). One of the two main pieces of the sculpture is a 'sandstone wave', consisting of about 200 tonnes of sandstone blocks in an undulating form reminiscent of the tectonic forces that created the stone. The sculptor says the design is 'inspired by the sandstone stratas it emerges out of and, of course, the link to the sea which it cascades towards ... its evolution is from the geomorphology.'
See also
Hummelstown brownstoneHummelstown brownstone
Hummelstown brownstone is a medium-grain, dense sandstone quarried near Hummelstown in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, USA. It is a dark brownstone with reddish to purplish hues, and was once widely used as a building stone in the United States....
, a stone from Pennsylvania with a comparable cultural history