On a historic street in Albany, restoration work is underway on Scots Church, a heritage-listed building constructed in 1892 with locally sourced granite and lime mortar. It is the kind of job that still depends on hand skills, even with modern power tools on site.
That is also the problem. Heritage stonemasons across Western Australia say many of the industry’s most experienced hands are close to retirement, and there are not enough younger workers coming up behind them to take on the detailed repair work old buildings require.
Duncan Moon, a stonemason who immigrated from Wales in 1983, has spent almost 40 years on heritage restoration projects in Australia, including early work at the old jail in Mount Barker. He says he is hesitant to retire because demand stays steady, and the phone keeps ringing. He also warns that restoration done incorrectly can cause lasting damage, because the work demands a sound understanding of materials and technique.
For mason contractors and restoration crews, the article is a reminder that heritage masonry is not just cleaning and patching. It is careful mortar work, including tuckpointing and replacing crumbling joints, plus repairs to mouldings and other ornamental stone features. The materials matter, too, especially on older assemblies built around lime mortar and local stone.
Albany historian Malcolm Traill notes there are more than 100,000 heritage-listed buildings in Australia. In Western Australia alone, heritage-listed buildings, including those on the National Trust Register, total almost 20,000. Without ongoing maintenance, he says, decay accelerates and the price to bring a building back jumps.
Industry leaders say the workforce pipeline is thin. About 5,000 people are employed as regular stonemasons nationally, and fewer have heritage skills. The Heritage Skills Association is pushing for more formal training, pointing out that outside a Cert III in South Australia, there are limited certification options. Younger stonemasons like Evan Zlnay, who started at TAFE and moved into a specialized restoration apprenticeship, say the trade needs more visibility so the next generation knows it is even an option.
Read the full, original article from abc.net.au here.