14, A good supply of stone.

May of 2000 and my search for a supply of good stone had taken me to Warrion, a small town nestled on the eastern slopes of Warrion hill. This cone is situated at the northern end of the Red Rock volcanic complex on the east shore of lake Corangamite and to the north of Colac. It was from this same lava flow that the basalt had been sourced for use on the church in Beeac. I had been looking in an ever increasing arc including the Winchelsea, Wingeel, Little River and Stonehaven areas with no success.
I was fortunate as I found a farmer who had recently had large areas cleared of stone for cropping, the rock had been gathered into large piles, this enabled my father and I to select the better ones for my purpose. Our truck, pictured above carries about 11 tonnes, with it we carried about 6 loads the 90 or so kilometres back to my place with an extra trip back to pick up the front end loader.
This stone was much superior to that which I had previously tried to work, it split cleanly in straight lines, had few, if any,inherent cracks and had a very consistent colour and texture.