Sandstone in Sydney
As visitors explore Sydney,
Australia, they quickly notice the unique buildings found throughout the
streets. These buildings are specific to
the area and share Australia’s history and culture as you explore the city.
On your private day tour in
Sydney, you and your group are able to see the many different, beautiful
sandstone buildings located throughout the city and learn the history of each
one.
Sandstone
The sandstone buildings in Sydney
are created from Sydney Basin Hawkesbury Sandstone which is also known as
Yellow Block. This stone is true to its
name as it’s yellow, gold and orange colours remind many visitors and locals of
the colours found on the beach. The stone is commonly found on the Hawkesbury River
located just north of the city, so the name also bears its location.
It is said that sandstone began
to be supplied from quarries in 1858 and then used in building both commercial
and residential structures.
As the sandstone has been used to
create Sydney’s earlier buildings, its durability is impeccable. Standing up to anything and everything, the
buildings created in sandstone have had little decomposition or damage. Whether the elements were from mother nature,
such as rain, wind and extreme sun, or man-made such as pollution, Sydney’s
sandstone has held up.
More than just Buildings
Given the durability, sandstone
has had many uses throughout Australia.
Prior to being used for buildings (in 1970 and 1980), Sydney sandstone
was used as a material for carvings created by Aboriginal People throughout the
island. With the stone’s light colour,
sandstone was also used as a canvas for native drawings as the illustration
would be easily seen and would last a long time.
The rock carvings, often made out
of sandstone would have most likely followed three steps. The first would be that the worker would have
sketched an outline of the carving by scratching the rock’s surface. After the outline was completed, they would
have punctured the rock using a sharp, and harder stone or shell. Although Sydney sandstone is durable, it is
quite soft, so it would have been the ideal material to carve into. Once the holes were created, the creator
would have used that same hard, sharp objects to deepen the line between the two
holes until the holes were joined creating an edge.
This long and tedious process
would have been completed many times to create the individual carvings and
canvases for drawings.
As you tour throughout Sydney and
the rest of Australia, you will find local Indigenous People’s groups who will
be selling their own rock carvings as tokens you can bring back home with you.
Sandstone Buildings in Sydney
There are many sandstone
buildings to check out on your private day tour Sydney and here is our top list,
broken down by category.
Places of Worship
●
St. Mary’s Cathedral
●
St. Andrew’s Cathedral
●
Great Synagogue
Education Buildings
●
Sydney Grammar School - Main Building
●
Newington College
●
University of Sydney - Original Buildings
Public Buildings
●
Art Gallery of NSW
●
Queen Victoria Building (QVB)
●
Museum of Sydney
●
Sydney Hospital
●
Victoria Barracks
●
Government House
Houses
●
Cranbrook, Bellevue Hill
●
The Abbey, Annandale
●
Carthona, Darling Point
●
Kenilworth, Potts Point
Interior and Exterior Use
To add additional depth and
design to Sydney buildings, designers have begun using sandstone beyond the
typical building bricks. You can now
find sandstone pavers, flooring and wall cladding as the colour and connection
to nature allows for the beauty and durability to be brought into the house.
If you look close enough, you
will also find sandstone in many other products (or as products). The only place that sandstone has not
ventured to is as a roofing material.
Using sandstone in living
environments is a great addition as the stone is thermally neutral which allows
it to be placed in different temperature areas and not be greatly affected.
Expert Stonesmiths
As Sydney Sandstone is not like
other stone, the skill of sandstone smiths has been passed down for
generations. As the buildings in Sydney
increase in age, there is a greater need for the skills these workers have. From regular maintenance to conservation
tasks, the sandstone used in many of Sydney’s historic buildings need
restoring.
Although not all repairs can be
done, there are many steps towards restoration that can happen. Sandstone smiths have the ability to slow
down the deterioration of the stone, protect the building from structural
problems, reduce the chance of falling stone, enhance the appearance of the
building and corrections or repairs that do not affect the historic fabric of
the building.
Restoration Projects
Many projects on historic
landmarks made from Sydney Sandstone in the city are undergoing not just
conservation efforts, but full restoration projects. You will see many of these projects as you
discover the sandstone buildings of Sydney.
While looking at these projects, you will find the types of restoration
practices.
The first type of restoration is
replacement. By replacing the original
sandstone with new sandstone, the quality and integrity of the stone is
renewed. Expert stonesmiths can replace
either a single block or an entire section with new sandstone. The biggest
challenge with this type of repair is finding new stone that matches, as many
of the quarries that were originally used have been closed. Each quarry has a slightly different colour
and texture.
Another type of restoration is
retooling the surfaces. This is
explained by removing some of the damaged material on the outside of the
sandstone and exposing the lower layers of the stone. Depending on the size of the stone, this may
or may not be possible.
The final type of restoration you
will see happening throughout Sydney is patching. The art of patching allows for additional
material to be added on top. This
process is often used as it is reversible.
As practices and technology are always developing, reversible processes
are often selected.
Discover Sydney’s Sandstone
Why wait? Book your Sydney
Sightseeing private tour with Runaway Tours Australia today
and discover all of Sydney’s sandstone buildings. Not only will you be able to explore the
streets of Sydney and the culture they contain, but you will be able to see a
wide variety of sandstone architecture, unique to Sydney, Australia.
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