{"id":906780,"date":"2026-09-27T00:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T00:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/906780\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T00:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T00:16:15","slug":"australias-historic-stone-buildings-could-crumble-without-a-new-generation-of-stonemasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/906780\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia’s historic stone buildings could crumble without a new generation of stonemasons"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a historic street near the southern tip of Western Australia, work is underway to restore a church that is more than a century old.<\/p>\n

Constructed in 1892 with locally sourced granite and lime mortar, the fine craftsmanship of the heritage-listed building is characteristic of Australia’s colonial era.<\/p>\n

But with many heritage stonemasons on the cusp of retirement, structures like these will crumble if a new generation is not trained in the dying craft.<\/p>\n

\"Stonemasons<\/p>\n

Despite the advent of power tools, hand tools like chisels and mallets are still used for heritage restoration work. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

Trade close to extinction<\/p>\n

Duncan Moon immigrated to Australia from Wales in 1983 and has worked as a heritage stonemason for almost 40 years.<\/p>\n

“Within a short time of arriving, I was on my first heritage restoration project, which was the old jail in Mount Barker,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Moon is close to retirement, but hesitant to put down his tools.<\/p>\n

“I don’t think I’m going to be able to retire because my phone keeps ringing,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There’s a bit of a dearth of heritage stonemasons.<\/p>\n

“I’d like to see them with my level of skill, and know that when I do retire and I’m finally put out to pasture that this younger generation have the thirst and the hunger for the job.”<\/p>\n

\"Stonemasons<\/p>\n

Duncan Moon has worked as a stonemason for more than 40 years. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

He said Albany’s Scots Church was one of many heritage-listed buildings in Australia in need of restoration.<\/p>\n

“The work on old buildings tends to be ongoing. Just about everywhere has done quite a lot of damage to their built heritage, either deliberately or inadvertently,” Mr Moon said.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes the work is undertaken incorrectly \u2014 a very sound knowledge of material and technique is required.”<\/p>\n

Heritage stonemasons need to be skilled in mouldings to repair ornamental building features, as well as tuck-pointing, a technique used to repair and replace crumbling mortar between stone.<\/p>\n

\"Stonemasons<\/p>\n

Lime mortar, shipped from across the King George Sound, was used on early Albany buildings. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

Pillars of history<\/p>\n

There are more than 100,000 heritage-listed buildings in Australia, which Albany historian Malcolm Traill says are a vital part of the nation’s past.<\/p>\n

“You can look at society, and how it’s evolved and changed, through the eyes of buildings,” he said.<\/p>\n

“See how people lived, what size buildings they were, what scale, their changes of use.”<\/p>\n

\"Stonemasons<\/p>\n

Malcolm Trail says heritage buildings are a vital part of Australia’s history. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

He has warned without an urgent uptake in heritage trades, history will be left to crumble.<\/p>\n

“These buildings, which are well over 100 years old, are only here because they are maintained,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If they’re looked after they will survive, but if they’re not they will decay and deteriorate.<\/p>\n

“Once the building fails, it’s going to be very expensive to actually bring it back to its original circumstance.”<\/p>\n

\"Stonemasons<\/p>\n

Traditional stonemasonry tools are handcrafted by Duncan Moon. (ABC Great Southern: Andrew Chounding)<\/p>\n

Training deficit<\/p>\n

About 5,000 people are employed as regular stonemasons in Australia, with even fewer having the skills to work on heritage buildings.<\/p>\n

It is a gap the Heritage Skills Association is racing against an aging workforce to fill.<\/p>\n

Historic pub for sale<\/a><\/p>\n

This historic pub survived riots and an earthquake and has now been listed for sale. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Except for your Cert III in South Australia in heritage skills trades, there’s no other certification,” chief executive Yolanda Cool said.<\/p>\n

“As a group, we’re now pushing for a project-based intergenerational model.<\/p>\n

“We need to have formal training.”\"Stonemasons<\/p>\n

Yolanda Cool says more formal training is needed to keep heritage trades alive. (ABC South West: Neve Brissenden)<\/p>\n

She said more traditional trade courses were an essential step in preserving Australian history.<\/p>\n

“If we’re looking at heritage-listed buildings, including the National Trust Register at a state level, there’s almost 20,000 buildings [in WA],” Ms Cool said.<\/p>\n

“For many, it’s cheaper to demolish and replace with modern materials than to repair, because they haven’t got the skills.”<\/p>\n

Next generation<\/p>\n

Heritage stonemason Evan Zlnay started his career at TAFE before taking up a specialised restoration apprenticeship.<\/p>\n

He works for Colgan Industries, which employs only a few people under 30 but is trying to train younger workers.<\/p>\n

“It’s just been having the old boys show me the little tips and tricks of heritage work,” Mr Zlnay said.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to do what they did in the old days.<\/p>\n

“To learn, it takes a bit of time.”<\/p>\n

\"Stonemasons<\/p>\n

Evan Zlnay says more awareness is needed to help get more young people into the heritage trade.\u00a0 (Supplied: Evan Zlnay)<\/p>\n

Mr Zlnay, who is in his 20s, says there needed to be more awareness about the trade.<\/p>\n

“It’s good because we go and fix up old things that you don’t want to fall over, and make them look new again,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Not many people would know that it’s an option.<\/p>\n

“Everyone these days wants to be a plumber or a sparky.”<\/p>\n

Mr Zlnay said he had the opportunity to work on buildings across Western Australia, including at the world-class tourist attraction Rottnest Island.<\/p>\n

“You get to work on the coolest places,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You get satisfaction out of your job because you fix an old building and make it look new, but also not new at the same time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a historic street near the southern tip of Western Australia, work is underway to restore a church…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":906781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[94788,64,63,474937,474936,135871,1571,44,32669,474934,474935,80059,45],"class_list":["post-906780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-apprenticeship","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-heritage-listed-buildings","tag-heritage-trades-association","tag-historian","tag-history","tag-news","tag-restoration","tag-stonemason","tag-stonemasonry","tag-tafe","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=906780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/906780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/906781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=906780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=906780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=906780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}