employed designer Paul Sorenson to transform three hectares of the untamed bush into the formal gardens as we know them today. Built in the 1930s as a weekend retreat the steep extremely challenging sloped site with a one in two gradient in some places presented Sorensen with major challenges.

In his design, Sorensen decided to separate the views of the valley from the more formal garden areas thus creating separate garden rooms, each with their own charm and grandeur. For some, it would have seemed strange to purposefully obscure the view from the formal terraces; but for Sorenson, the garden had greater interest if it was made impossible to see the total layout from any single position.

Sorensen’s horticultural background was perfectly attuned for the problems that confronted him. His early studies supervised in Denmark by the leading landscape architect at the time and his work in Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt and Paris, but undoubtedly, it was the skills he acquired in the Swiss Alps that would be the perfect fit for the challenges that lay ahead.

The earth was poor in nutrients thin, sandy and full of ironstone fragments. To ensure easy access and suitability for planting, Sorensen employed the European dry stone tradition thereby creating large flat land areas by taming the landscape with a series of terraced walls.

Sorensen overcame the lack of fertile soil by digging by hand deep areas for planting. The excavated soil was enriched with humus and distributed to the garden beds. Ironstone was removed and graded according to quality, and colour and the best pieces were used to create the massive, dry stone walls which are a main feature of the garden.

The labour-intensive work was executed before the days of bulldozers and bob-cats. As in earlier times, levers pulleys and gantries were used to move boulders and shape the landscape. Swathes were cut into the hillsides, stakes and lines were marked out and men labouring in pairs trundled barrows along narrow planks and catwalks. Few were skilled tradesmen; the lack of heavy machinery and the physical labour required to create the walled areas and planting areas was quite daunting however Australia was still in the grip of the Great Depression so fortunately there were plenty of able-bodied men glad of the opportunity for work (Roland 1989). The property is now managed by the National Trust of New South Wales (Australia).

9.6Garden Walls Contemporary Terraces

A short walk from the Sydney Opera House in New South Wales is the beautiful sandstone terraced retaining walls designed to display a wide range of Australian natives. Sandstone is the foundation of the city, and its warm and richly coloured stone abounds in natural outcrops and majestic heritage buildings. An ideal material for constructing dry stone walls.

The first European farm in Australia, the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney is the oldest scientific institution in Australia. From the earliest days, it has played a major

role in the acclimatisation of plants from other regions and the scientific study of native plants of New South Wales and the South Pacific. The terraces were completed in time to celebrate the Opera House’s 30th Anniversary and to showcase Sydney to the world during the 2000 Olympics.

However, the most significant concentrated complex of contemporary dry stone terraces can be found at the Australian Mount Annan Botanic Gardens in New South Wales. The development commenced in 1985 and required a creative solution to turn a 170 year-old dairy farm on heavy clay soils into interesting garden displays and public recreational space.

Dry stone walls and terraces were part of the answer. Aesthetically appealing and long lasting, they gave character and identity to the overall design. Constructed over several years by fee-paying students who attended dry stone wall learning workshops, the cost neutral project was the brain-child of Geoff Duggan, who was until recently, a senior Landscape Planner with the Royal Botanic Gardens at both Sydney and Mount Annan (Marshall 2000: 13).

As part of the development Geoff and his colleagues were confronted with the dilemma of how to grow the diverse collection of Australian native plants in the very heavy clay soil. The terraces constructed with quarried sandstone provided by far the best opportunity to plant using different soil mixes and to facilitate directional drainage focussed on the garden beds.

9.7Preservation and Regulations

Whilst dry stone terraces can be found in selected areas, by far the majority of walls in Australia are free standing. As a result of suggested recommendations made in the 1999 Federal Government funded Touring Exhibition A Stone Upon A Stone, the Dry Stone Walls Association of Australia (DSWAA) Inc. was founded in Ballarat, Victoria in 2002.

A not-for-profit organisation the DSWAA is an all-encompassing and diverse group of rural property owners, pastoralists and farmers, urban dwellers, environmentalists and other professionals with a special interest in the identification, documentation and conservation of dry stone walls to be found Australia-wide, as well as a number of practitioners engaged in the craft of dry stone walling and dry stone sculpture.

Broadly, its goals can be summarised, firstly as being: that National, State and Local governments, as well as the wider community, recognise the significance of dry stone structures built by indigenous peoples, European explorers, early settlers and modern craftspeople as valued artefacts of our national identity; secondly, that following recognition by governments, landholders and the wider community of the cultural significance of dry stone walls throughout the Australian landscape, statutory protection is considered as an appropriate means of protecting and preserving the heritage of dry stone walls in Australia.

As mentioned above, the DSWAA was founded in Victoria and this State remains the centre of the Association’s activities although there are many members in other States. Victoria has the majority of Australia’s dry stone walls; a reflection of the volcanic geology of the State’s south–west and the history of European settlement that led to the construction of many hundreds of kilometres of dry stone walls in the midto late-nineteenth century.

It is therefore not surprising that it is in Victoria where statutory planning controls to protect dry stone walls are most comprehensive of any State.

In December 2008, a provision was written into all of the 78 municipal Planning Schemes in Victoria to give those municipalities the capacity to protect historic dry stone walls. This provision requires a permit to be obtained to demolish, remove or alter a dry stone wall constructed before 1940. However, to activate this provision, the relevant municipality has to have undertaken a survey or study to identify the specific dry stone walls that it wants this provision to apply to. Only a few municipalities have undertaken studies to identify walls that meet required criteria to be designated as worthy of preservation. It is hoped that this number will increase, and that States other than Victoria will introduce statutory measures into their planning schemes to provide the same capacity for protection as Victoria.

As well as the above, there is a limited number of instances in States other than Victoria where historic dry stone walls enjoy formal protection, but these are localised and the result of a recognition of the value of a small group of walls in a particular area rather than as the result of a comprehensive or municipality-wide research or survey.

In terms of ongoing preservation and maintenance, although there are relatively few wallers in Australia, those that do exist are both passionate and dedicated to maintaining the ongoing future of the craft. However, at present, there are no dedicated facilities to undertake any formal qualifications. Some wallers have travelled to the Dry Stone Walls Association of Great Britain10 to gain their qualifications, others have gained theirs from Geoff Duggan11 who is qualified to undertake the British test in Australia and some have learned the technique as part of other landscaping courses or experiences.

The DSWAA conducts occasional workshops and some maintenance during its field trip activities, and their website (http://dswaa.org.au/) maintains a Directory of Wallers. Some have formal qualifications whilst others do not. Therefore the Association advises potential clients that listing does not imply endorsement of wallers.

10“Craftsman Certification Scheme”, The Dry Stone Walls Association of Great Britain, http:// www.dswa.org.uk/craftsman-certification-scheme.asp (accessed February 6, 2017).

11“Dry Stone Walling Workshops”, http://www.geogenic.com.au/dry-stone-walling-workshops. html (accessed March 6, 2017).

9.8Art, Craft, Survival and Creativity

If we reflect on Maslow’s theory on human motivation, can we argue that despite the scarcity of terraces in Australia, those that do survive, serve to constantly remind us of the tenacity of immigrants with the flexibility to re-interpret a harsh and unfamiliar geological landscape in new and creative ways? That, by building dry stone terraces their basic needs for survival and shelter were addressed and due to the need to develop new skills, establish communities and make new friends their need for creativity and companionship may have also been fulfilled.

Located in the Grizedale Forest Sculpture Park, a working forest in the Lakes District National Park in Cumbria in the UK is an excellent and creative example of how we might understand, interpret and challenge in a contemporary context the relationship between art, craft, history and modernity. The award-winning Ridding Wood Trail offers the visitor easy access and provides an exciting introduction to the visual arts. But it is much deeper in the forest, where the natural extension of the ancient craft of dry stone walling has been re-thought and reinterpreted for a modern-day audience.

Challenging the notion of cultural landscape as museum or gallery the forest is the perfect setting for Andy Goldsworthy’s site-specific dry stone sculpture ‘Taking a Wall for a Walk’. Sited among the scrub and bracken, the wall snakes in and out of the edge of the woodland. Because this serpentine-like dry stone section of wall, a modern-day piece of sculpture, joins so seamlessly with fragmented sections of an old agrarian wall, with it raises as many questions as it does answers.

Where does history end and modernity begin? Where does the dry stone craft end and the dry stone art begin? Who is the artist? Andy for his artistic vision and design of the work, or the professional wallers who built the wall with and under his guidance? Perhaps its both. However, it could be argued that in the end, the degree of cultural significance is best demonstrated by the extent to which a society’s socio-political processes endeavour to influence changes in behaviour and devote resources and processes to ensure its conservation.

To that end, where better in Australia to showcase and promote the beauty and benefits of dry stone terracing than in the unique and historic 1788 first fleet landing area of Sydney Cove, a small bay on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour. In the nearby Royal Botanic Gardens the single most distinct landscape feature is the historic hand-hewn sandstone seawall. The visible complex of impressive dry stone terracing designed to display a rockery of Australian natives curves around Farm Cove from Mrs. Macquarie’s Point to the Sydney Opera House. The well-trodden pathway delineates the garden from the harbour and exposes the craft of terracing to provide an aesthetic and focal point for locals and visitors alike (Fig. 9.4).