The Sandstone Story...
Material Exploration in Sandstone Country - Eora/Sydney
The geologies of Sydney create an identity that cannot be missed. From our classic coastal escarpments, bushy heathlands, cliff faces and valleys, to the colour of our beaches and the stone of our heritage city - we interact with sandstone wherever we go.
I invite you to reflect on a place you recognise for holding sandstone - what is your connection to this place? Is it a landscape, a garden, a park, a monument? How does this material make you feel and does it remind you of home? When you are walking and listening to the land, we can learn from the land and begin to ask questions - significantly, I ask; where are we?
If you are based in Eora Sydney, there is a slim chance that sandstone has not revealed itself to you. Sydney sits on a bed of sandstone that unapologetically reveals itself; from the Blue Mountains that are raised to heights by monumental cliffs, to the coastal walls that drop into the ocean, the landscapes of Sandstone Country are wild, dramatic and recognisable.
Photography by Rory Lewis
Beautiful soft and yet wild… sandstone tells a story in its self. It holds a layered history that intertwines the geological forces and human interactions across time. To understand the Sandstone story, we have to go back into the past to the river that deposited sand in quantities over 100m deep.
The story starts in Gondwanaland, 240 million years ago where an ancient river delta that spread from present day Antarctica to Sydney deposited magnificent quantities of quartz sand across the Earth. This sand, laid layer by layer over millions of years was buried by its own weight and pressured by time gone by. Exposed and uplifted by tectonic movement it reached the surface once again. This tectonic movement exposed the rock, allowing it to be contoured, caressed and eroded by the elements.
In its time interacting with humans, First Nations people have cared for and respected this landscape as the source of life: from being a stage for ceremony and a shelter for campfires and storytelling. Upon colonisation, it was quarried and processed by settlers into building materials to shelter and construct the city of Sydney. Today, sandstone is sourced, quarried, cut, shaped, revered, protected and loved.
This story is told in the sandstone you held in your garden, in the street and in the wild - and hopefully now you will greet it with reverence and creativity.
Our gardens work with this material and where ever possible, it is protected and celebrated to create awe so that future generations get to experience its grandeur. We work with sites that have exposed bedrock, in gully’s and slopes, to bushy back corners - to create a garden unique to your properties natural features and assets. This includes natural and cut sandstone in paving, walls and benches to create texture and feature that enhance the natural aesthetic of your garden.
This palette includes an accompanying plant diversity expressed in sandstone landscapes, that become a defining element in our works. We are inspired by place.
These images explore some landscapes where sandstone has inspired our design:
By using sandstone, we incorporate a shared history in your landscape - the place you imagine to be around you, and the place that speaks through the story of the past. By blending these stories, we believe a garden is able to respect nature, people and place to work harmoniously.
A garden able to transform, delight and heal.