Some dry stone structures

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From 1974 until 2017 Kristin and I had a farm at Tungkillo in the eastern Mt Lofty Ranges. With a fair bit of raw material available I built many dry stone landscaping features ranging from paving to revetments and retaining walls through to free-standing walls. Also a few culverts, pits, steps and a table. Kristin and I also built a mortared return-veranda and a deck. All this with field stone – i.e. weathered, not quarried stone.

When we left the farm in 2017 the last thing I saw was the wall I had built at the end of the driveway. Built of nothing but stone from clearing a paddock, I was quite proud of that.

Moving to the Aldinga Arts-Eco Village I took with me about 16 tonne of stone in the vain hope that one day I might use it on a project. A mica schist, this is beautiful building stone. As if by destiny, the village already had several thousand basalt pitchers, salvaged from the Gepps Cross saleyards when they closed in 1999.

When Kristin and I cycled through the Lake District (UK) I was particularly taken by the dry stone bridges –generally small packhorse or pedestrian structures, always beautiful. I thought that building one at the village would be such a good thing to do. Inevitably one bridge led to another. A horseshoe courtyard and a chicken&egg used up all the stone from the farm, along with several stone monoliths generously donated by our former farm neighbour.

The most recent project, inspired by a structure seen in Vermont (USA), uses basalt pitchers, sandstone monoliths and local slate ‘petals’, all stone used throughout the village.