Our Forgotten Places: The Malmsbury Bluestone Quarries

 

Brunswick Quarry, 1866, Melbourne

The above photo appears to be one of the few photos on the State Library website that shows a working Victorian 19th century bluestone (basalt) quarry. This is Wale's Stone Quarry, Brunswick and in the background is the quarry master's house in Barklay Street East. It shows the equipment that might have been found in many stone quarries of that era and so serves as a guide to how the bluestone quarries around Malmsbury, Central Victoria, might have looked in the mid 1860's.

    Not only did the Malmsbury region have a number of basalt outcrops amenable to quarrying, the stone was particularly fine grained and easily worked. In the mid to late 19th century it gained an Australia wide reputation and was used in a number of notable Australian buildings, especially in Melbourne, and locally in Central Victoria. St Patricks Cathedral and St Pauls Cathedral in Melbourne are just two examples of its use. 

Colonial Bank’s Malmsbury bluestone doorway now located at the University of Melbourne.

        Below is an example of undressed Malmsbury bluestone showing its fine grained character. 

   

    In February 2024, Malmsbury Bluestone was officially designated a Global Heritage Stone Resource, the first stone in Australia to have been granted that status. This designation is a sign of the international recognition of natural stone resources that have achieved widespread utilisation in human culture. It is undoubtedly due to the advocacy work of Malmsbury historian Dr Susan Walter that this was achieved.

    Because of it's fine grain, Malmsbury Bluestone was perfect for ornamental work and facing stone for high status buildings. It was also well suited for a range of other purposes, including railway ballast and road metal. 

    In early 2025 I set out to find the location of what I believe to be the main Malmsbury bluestone quarry which was first worked in 1856. The company that operated the quarry traded under the name of the Footscray and Malmsbury Stonecutting and Quarrying Co. While there are a number of abandoned small bluestone quarries in and around Malmsbury, the main quarry appears to have straddled the intersection of Old Quarry Road (the name being an obvious giveaway) and Rollinsons Road, Greenhill (once Green Hill).

    In other locations, bluestone quarries are almost always deep excavations, the extraction of stone mostly occurring below ground level. Where I grew up in East Thornbury, Melbourne, the worked out quarries later became useful for the disposal of household rubbish, before the days of stringent EPA restrictions. But there are no deep quarries at the Greenhill site. The landscape is rather flat, broken only by the odd pile of bluestone boulders, mostly hidden away behind fences on freehold land. 

Bluestone Quarry, Greenhill

    We know a vast quantity of bluestone was removed from this large quarry and so one is left to wonder why there are no deep pits. The only conclusion I can reach is that the bluestone must have been quarried from large outcrops which have now been brought down to ground level.  The quarry is approximately 3 km north east of Malmsbury.

        As reported in the Mount Alexander Mail (14 July,1863, page 2), by the early 1860's, Malmsbury bluestone was already renowned throughout the district, having been used in the construction of the Malmsbury railway viaduct and the Blyth Brothers Steam Flour Mill.

Blyth and Co's Flour Mill (now a private residence), 1963, John Collins

    Owing to it's fine, easily worked character, Malmsbury bluestone was in great demand in Melbourne and elsewhere, but the the costs of transporting unworked stone to the stone cutters and dressers in Footscray was prohibitive and so restricted its use. The attempt to obtain a cheaper railways freight rate was a reoccurring theme over the years.

Stone cutter and dressers, Footscray ca. 1866, Charles Nettleton

        One way to save on freight costs was to cut and dress the stone before shipment to Melbourne. To this end, a stone cutting plant was installed near the Malmsbury Botanic Gardens, adjacent to the Coliban River and the newly constructed Coliban Water Scheme channel (completed in the late 1870's). The original intention was to use the height difference between the channel and the river to spin a turbine which would power a rack of cutting blades. Unfortunately the power generated was insufficient for such purpose and steam power was utilised instead. While no photos have survived of the Malmsbury Stone cutting works, remains of the diversion channel to the old turbine can still be seen about 60 m south of Mollison Street.

Remains of diversion channel to Stone cutting works turbine, Malmsbury

    At the Malmsbury bluestone quarry in Old Quarry Road, some interesting features have survived the years. Although the ruins below are on freehold land and are inaccessible, they may well be of an old powder magazine. There appears to have been no standard plan to powder magazines back in the 19th century and a range of designs can be seen in Victorian towns.

Old powder magazine? Looking west from Old Quarry Road, Greenhill

    Hidden among the pine trees on the east side of Old Quarry Road there's an old shelter constructed of large bluestone blocks. Whether it was initially constructed to house explosives or to provide a place for the quarry workers to have their meal break isn't known. If for the latter then it would have been a tight squeeze!

Workers shelter? Old Malmsbury bluestone quarry

       On the south side of Rollinsons Road there's an interesting waterhole ringed by bluestone boulders.

Waterhole, Old Malmsbury bluestone quarry, Rollinsons Road, Greenhill

    As mentioned above, the high cost of freight was a perennial concern of the Footscray and Malmsbury Stonecutting and Quarrying Co. One solution that kept cropping up was to construct a tramway from the quarry to a convenient railway station. On the 27th January,1891, The company owners reiterated their desire for a tramway, this time to go to the North Lauriston Railway Station, soon to be renamed Redesdale Junction, on the Bendigo line, despite the fact that Greenhill station on the Redesdale line lay less than a kilometre to the north east (refer above map).

    It would seem that this tramway was never constructed, nor the one suggested by a Country Roads Board contractor in 1915, which would have run parallel to the Redesdale railway line and convey 'spawls' (offcuts and fragments) to a crushing plant (presumably to be used for road metal) further up the line at Edgecombe (Kyneton Guardian, 1915, 5 June, page 4). By this time it is uncertain who owned the quarry,  the Footscray and Malmsbury Quarrying Company having shut down its operations in 1914 due to a pay dispute with its workers, beginning the process of it fading from its former prominence.

    With the renewed attention on the beauty and importance of Malmsbury bluestone it is to be hoped that the quarries at Greenhill are recognized for their historical importance through heritage protection. Perhaps, one day, the small parcel of land on the north east corner of Rollinsons Road and Old Quarry Road, now clothed in pines and gorse, will be acquired by the State Government and designated as a Historic and Heritage Reserve.