The quarry reserve is one of the largest in Australia. It is also unique in that it offers a variety of distinct colours.
The reserve is in excess of 1 million m3 of dimension stone, and is expected to be operating well into the next century.
The quarry is above ground, a solid mountain of stone, it is part of the geological unit known as the Razorback Beds formed during the Jurassic age about 180 million years ago, and it is the only one of its kind in this region.
The material was laid down as a large deposit of sand in a fresh water environment, similar to the sand formations at the mouths of the Mississippi and Amazon Rivers today. Over time these sands have solidified into solid rock. This is a very similar environment to that in which the Hawkesbury or Sydney Sandstone was formed.
The quarry was established in the 1800's, the first quarrymen used bars and black powder to extract stone manually.
On re-opening in 1994, Fantini chainsaws were used to trench the stone. The stone was then under drilled, plugged and feathered to extract sandstone in large blocks. Derrick and mobile cranes were used to move blocks around the quarry.
From 2000 to 2006 drilling and diamond wire were utilised to open up new areas of the reserve.
Since 2006 excavators have been used to cut stone blocks from the reserve; all quarrying now uses this method.
A substantial financial investment has been directed towards machinery and quarry development. Production has increased three fold and is still rising.
We use 24 and 45 tonne excavators with attachments such as:
- Rocksaws - 3m blade
- Jackhammers - 25 tonne
- Rockgrabs - 45 tonne
New extraction methods utilising excavators have enabled large volumes of stone to be extracted in short time periods, and requires no manual labour, unlike early extraction methods.
