Creating rock slabs with heat and water
By Judy Evans
@JudyEv (381942)
Rockingham, Australia
October 26, 2020 6:51pm CST
MyLotter nawala (@nawala123) recently wrote about cooking on stone. You can catch up here: https://www.mylot.com/post/3408521/cooking-on-stone. Her post reminded me of how early Australian settlers used to create their own stone slabs. Whatever the settlers needed had to come from the natural surroundings.
Granite slabs were gleaned from rocky outcrops by lighting a big fire on the surface of the rock. This was allowed to burn all night. When water was poured on the rock next morning the granite exploded in big layers.
This process was used to create the wall shown in the photo. This low rock wall built during 1937-38 on Beringbooding Rock near Beacon in Western Australia. The rock walls channelled the water into a huge tank. The project provided ‘sustenance labour’ for about 100 men. They were given a week’s work for each dependent child. The tank holds two and a quarter million gallons and is the largest rock water catchment tank in Australia.
Using rock walls on granite outcrops as a means of trapping water was quite common in Western Australia in days gone by.
19 people like this
20 responses
@Namelesss (3364)
• United States
27 Oct 20
Brilliant. I love learning about old-school low-tech ways of getting the job done.
2 people like this
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
28 Oct 20
don't'cha jest love the ingenuity 'f our ancestors? livin' off the lands, usin' what'd be 't hand. i do wonder if'n they learnt that fire 'trick' from the aboriginal peoples?
dang, that'd be a whole lot'ta water! they couldn't've chosen a better rock to build such.
1 person likes this
@crazyhorseladycx (39503)
• United States
28 Oct 20
@JudyEv wholy flyin' cow patties! yes ma'am, quite a large catchment area fer certain. wonder if'n such'd be 'llowed these days? dunno what'cher laws'd be there'n such regards. i know there'd be many places here'n the u.s. where ya aint e'en 'llowed to catch water comin' off yer house.
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@JudyEv (381942)
• Rockingham, Australia
30 Oct 20
@crazyhorseladycx They brought in similar laws in Queensland. Rain water has to fall 'naturally' and go to replenishing the water-table and not be captured for diversion into rainwater tanks, etc.
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (97991)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
27 Oct 20
Very clever and thank you for the information,
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (381942)
• Rockingham, Australia
27 Oct 20
That's nice. People were very resourceful back then. And many still are of course.
@JudyEv (381942)
• Rockingham, Australia
29 Oct 24
Of course, in Ireland and parts (most?) of Britain there is a surfeit of stone but that isn't always the case in Australia. Making rock walls would have been a good way of getting some of the stones off the ground. Our paddocks need to be much bigger too. South Australia has remnants of stone fencing from early settler days but not WA.
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@nawala123 (20871)
• Indonesia
27 Oct 20
it must be hard for those day, but still useful until today, isnt it?
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