bruce munday - Wakefield Press

stones in the bloodin the southern Flinders Ranges, where many miles of fence were supposedly built by a man withone arm and an Aboriginal woman assistant, about the only source of such ‘knowledge’ is over thecounter at the Hawker Mobil servo.Angus McLachlan lamented to me the greatest mistake he made when he took over runningRosebank Station in the Adelaide Hills in 1970: ‘I didn’t take the time to sit down and talk to theoverseer who had been here for over fifty years, and whose father, Levi Meakins, had built many ofthe wonderful walls throughout the district.’Now I have a dilemma – when is a stone wall really dry-stone? Obviously when no mortar was used.But what about when the mortar was nothing but mud that has eroded away over the years?This book is mainly about the walls that spent their life untouched by mortar. But it does includesome walls that have shed their mortar and impress us because of their history, endurance, beautyor some other compelling attribute.When is a dry-stone wallreally dry?For me a dry-stone wall is when it has no mortar.But Kristin, the photographer, squirms at this andannounces, ‘It must never have had mortar.’ Onthe one hand Kristin says I am snobbish aboutdry-stone walls being special, but then she wantsto disqualify some of the finest old walls inthe State.It seems that I have won this debate as I amwriting about anything that is now dry-stone andshe is shooting them. In fact we have relaxed the criteria further. It is dry-stone for the purpose of thisbook if it now looks dry-stone from all sides. The only mortar used was mud that has weathered awaycompletely or is of the same parent material as the stone and what little remains is barely noticeableto all but the most forensic eye. In fact, you could persuade a sceptic that it is dust that blew in there!We have found some wonderful walls, mainly on shepherds’ huts, stables, stalls and sheds whichwere exposed to the elements when the roof blew off and now show no evidence at all of mortar oneither side. Is it cheating to say that these have defaulted to dry-stone? It means of course that manyruins, particularly in the pastoral country, will now be classified as dry-stone.I built a stone wall at the end of our driveway in 2006. Travelling the State and seeing what othershave done is uplifting but on reflection can be quite depressing. One day I said to Kristin, ‘Our wallhas too many holes I can see light through. Maybe I should knock it down and start again?’7