GSV Report 112 - Dimension stone in Victoria
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Product description:Download The downloadable version of this report is supplied in PDF format and is a large file (27.0MB). Abstract Dimension stone is natural stone that is cut to specific dimensions for use in the building, construction and monumental industries. Throughout history stone has proved to be the most durable of building materials. The range of colours and textures offered by sandstone, marble, granite and slate have meant that stone has imparted great beauty to many buildings through the ages. World scene World production of dimension stone in 1995 was estimated at 39 million tonnes or 323 million cubic metres with turnover of around US $12-13 billion (Società Editrice Apuana, 1996). If intermediary costs are included then estimates of world trade vary from US $24 to $40 billion (O’Connor, 1992). Global trade in dimension stone is clearly substantial. Italy has traditionally been at the centre of world dimension stone activity and in the 1930s controlled 65% of world trade. Although decreasing, Italy is still the largest individual player in world dimension stone trade accounting for 24.5% of exports and 14.6% of imports in 1995. The six leading producers in 1995, Italy, China, Spain, Greece, India and Brazil, accounted for 55% of world production. Europe (EEC & non-EEC) accounted for 45% of world production. Countries such as China, South Korea, India and Brazil, relatively small players in world stone trade in the early 1980s, have dramatically increased production of blocks and processed stone, and now account for roughly 25% of world trade. With respect to exports, Italy still dominates world trade with 24.4% of the market. In 1976, 76% of world stone production consisted of marble, and 19% of granite, however, by 1995 granite had risen to and stabilised at 40%. In 1994/95 Australia, a very small player and peripheral to world dimension stone trade, exported around 18,000 tonnes (t), and imported stone valued at $55 million (m). Production in 1995/96 was 132,000t (0.3% of world production). A brief history Victoria has a tradition of the use of basalt in the construction of buildings with it being the most widely used stone for this purpose. Victoria also has a tradition in the use of granite for dimension stone, with continuous extraction from the Harcourt area for over 120 years. Rock from 15 granite bodies in Victoria found its way into Melbourne buildings, although many other granites were quarried in country Victoria to build farmhouses and buildings in nearby towns. Sandstone, limestone and marble were also widely used in buildings in Victoria. The most widely used of the Victorian sandstones were the Barrabool Sandstone of Cretaceous age, from west of Geelong, the Stawell Sandstone of Silurian age from the Grampians Ranges (the most durable of Australia’s dimensional sandstones) and sandstone of Permian age from the Bacchus Marsh-Lauriston area. Other less important sources of sandstone were the turbidites of Cambrian-Ordovician age from western and eastern Victoria and from rocks of Silurian-Devonian and Tertiary age near Melbourne. Some Victorian crystalline limestones (marbles to the stone trade) were used in minor amounts for monumental and decorative purposes late last century. However, it was the Buchan marbles that became the most widely used local marbles and they are found in the foyers of many Melbourne buildings erected from around 1913 through to the end of the 1940s. Small bodies of white, pink, cream and grey marbles at Limestone Creek were quarried to a minor extent around the turn of the Century. Although having potential for monumental purposes and dimension stone these deposits are now included in a national park and are not accessible for extraction. Victoria has extensive areas of flat lying limestones of Tertiary age outcropping in many places in the southern part of the State. The only limestones of this type to be used to any major extent in buildings were those lying just west of Geelong; the Waurn Ponds Limestone and the Batesford Limestone. Elsewhere in southern Victoria limestones were used for local building. Numerous buildings in all states testify to the common use of stone for construction last century through to the early decades of this century. However, changing architectural styles, development of new materials, construction techniques, and two world wars, had a profound effect on the building stone industry in Australia in the first half of this century. Australian production and the product range decreased and by the late 1940s building using natural stone became intermittent. Where stone was being used it was often supplemented with imports from Europe. Between 1945 and 1980 the bulk of the Australian stone industry was focussed on monumental work. Although the same factors impacted overseas, the stone industry, traditionally the domain of the Europeans, and Italy in particular, was still of substantial size in a global sense. Economies of scale and technological advances in quarrying and processing in Europe saw the gradual upward trend in dimension stone use (demand) over the last 30 years. These advances brought stone into the market at a price that was competitive with other synthetic building materials. Once this was achieved their was an eager acceptance of stone, at least for major buildings as it provided an aesthetically pleasing option to the concrete, pre-cut panels and glass curtain walls of the 1960s and 1970s. In particular the last 15 years has seen a marked revival in the use of natural stone for building and paving. The 1937 Mines Department booklet listed stone types in Melbourne buildings. Appendix 9 of this report completes and updates that work, and extends the listing to the Southbank area. Appendix 10 and Appendix 11 provide indexes of buildings and rock types that allow cross referencing with the main Melbourne CBD listing in Appendix 9. Victoria Production of dimension stone in Victoria is dominated by basalt and granite. Production of basalt in Victoria over the past 4 years was in the range of 4,500 - 11,800t. The main producers are BAM Stone Pty Ltd at Port Fairy and Boral (Melocco) Pty Ltd from Deer Park, and there are large resources of basalt remaining. Granite production, entirely from Harcourt, has been in the range of 4800t to 9200t over the last decade. Current production of sandstone and slate is low with demand being met by imports, from interstate and overseas. However, interest is renewed in sandstone with two new quarries planned at Mount Angus Creek and Mount Bepcha. Both quarries are in units that have high potential for dimensional sandstone. Although there is no production from the crystalline limestones (“marbles”) at Buchan and Bindi both areas are rated highly as potential sources of dimension stone. The enormous expansion of the use of granite in modern buildings (due to technology making it more cost competitive) stimulated the recent assessment of potential sources in Victoria. Many of the 400 or so granite bodies in Victoria display impressive granite landscapes and large bare outcrops. However, on closer inspection a significant proportion reveals an unacceptable number of intersecting joint sets reducing the potential to yield large blocks. Rugged topography and difficult access can be a deterrent to quarrying. An assessment of land use planning constraints and other physical factors (colour, texture, the presence of xenoliths) also formed part of this study. After considering land use and physical constraints, 61 granites and gneisses were selected for inspection. Of the 12 granite bodies that have high potential, seven have not been quarried for dimension stone in the past. Chapter 7 of this report describes the main basalt, granite, sandstone, marble, limestone and slate dimension stone localities in detail, summarises their historical and current use and assesses their potential future use. Appendix 8 further summarises potential dimension stone sites in Victoria. The Australian scene By the 1970s the dimension stone industry in Australia had contracted to a small industry with quarrying and processing of granite occurring in South Australia (Austral/Imperial Black (Black Hill); Calca), Victoria (Harcourt), New South Wales and Tasmania. Sandstone was available from New South Wales (Hawkesbury Sandstone from various localities in Sydney & Gosford) as was marble from Wombeyan. In the 1980s major expansion in the industry occurred as large amounts of stone were used in city buildings. New processing plants were installed in New South Wales, ACT and Victoria and new quarries opened in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia, and a few quarries also opened in Western Australia and the Northern Territory. However, imports also surged, peaking at $91m in 1989/90, of which $77.7m was processed stone. Exports, valued at $10.6m in 1993/94, were small. Production was 132,000t in 1994/95. It is estimated that the yearly value of stone used by the Australian dimension stone industry is about $200m, with half being locally produced or value added to imports (Robinson, 1992). About 50 Australian granite varieties are now available. New South Wales and Queensland are major producers of sandstone while Australia’s marble production, mainly from New South Wales, is very small. Victoria’s production consists of granite (Harcourt) and basalt with minor sandstone and slate. Strong demand continued for Victorian basalt due to ongoing paving of streets and public places in Melbourne. Production ex-quarry was 10,785t and 40,700 square metres of finished basalt (bluestone) in 1995/96. Appendices 1 to 6 provide statistics on Australian production and imports and exports of dimension stone. Stone industry sectors in Australia With regard to domestic consumption stone processing can be categorised into two main sectors - one dealing with solid dimension stone (greater than 100 mm on the smaller dimension), and the processed slab sector. For the solid dimension stone sector the main markets are funeral monumental work, restoration works and minor new construction. The processed slab stone sector largely supplies new construction and building renovation. The solid dimension stone sector has always had a strong presence in Victoria. The major plants processing granitic rocks for funeral monumental works in Australia are located in Victoria and South Australia. The major stone processors estimate the size of the funeral monumental trade in southeastern Australia at approximately $20m p.a. Traditionally this industry has been relatively unaffected by the cyclical nature of the building sector and relatively immune from mass produced imports. A key development for the monumental industry, in Victoria at least, is the proposed privatisation of cemeteries flagged by the current review of the Cemeteries Act. This has raised the possibility of direct selling by cemeteries, of mass-produced, pre-made monuments imported from overseas. In contrast to the monumental industry, work in the building trade is cyclical. The surge in the use of stone in buildings during the 1980s brought significant structural change to the dimension stone industry with the proliferation of companies dealing in only one sector (fixing or slabbing or importing or quarrying etc). Over the past decade there has been substantial upgrading of existing processing plants and the establishment of new plants in Australia. Chapter 4 discusses the various industry sectors in more detail. Outlook for Australia A fundamental issue facing the industry is its size, and hence its ability to reap the benefits of efficiencies and cost reductions brought about by the economies of scale enjoyed by producing countries elsewhere. Processors in Australia argue they can produce a high quality finished product at a cost that is competitive with European producers. If, however, projects are driven by low cost, at the expense of quality, then imports of processed stone can undercut Australian producers and processors. The local industry needs to replace as much imported stone as possible with domestic production. Export success is most likely to be achieved with unusual rock types rather than with the more common rock types for which competition is fierce. However, the market is highly competitive and economy of scale is a critical factor for high-wage industrialised countries. Increased export penetration must be achieved against a world trade situation where dimension stone supply generally exceeds demand. Although some individual companies in Australia may have had significant export success, the industry as a whole requires a unified approach to move forward. A prominent feature of world trade in stone is the marketing by industry groupings generally at a national or regional level. A number of countries have strategies at a national level aimed at developing viable indigenous dimension stone industries, and have protectionist policies in relation to their local dimension stone industries. The strategies to varying degrees incorporate financial incentives, training programs and promotion/marketing of stone. Australia lacks any such coordinated strategy with an industry characterised by fragmentation, suspicion and poor communication. Competition from a highly organised and coordinated overseas stone industry impacts on all sectors of the stone trade. Examples are the importing of foreign sandstone to restore historic buildings built of Victorian sandstone; the bringing of masons from overseas for major modern building works; and the wholesale use of imported pre-cut and polished granite for direct fixing to buildings. If a high level of coordination and cooperation could be achieved then at least the industry would be placing itself in the best possible position to meet the ever-increasing challenges and threats of the future. Bibliographic reference King, R.L., and Weston, K.S., 1997. Dimension stone in Victoria. Geological Survey of Victoria Report 112. | ||||||
