The Epping Road Upgrade has rebuilt historic dry-stone walls to help maintain local heritage while working to delivering safer, more-reliable travel in Melbourne’s north.
The project team called in specially trained experts to rebuild the walls using traditional methods at three sites in Wollert .
With the original walls dismantled to make way for new lanes as part of the upgrade, the specialist wallers expertly reassembled them from the original basalt stones.
The painstaking process involved fitting together the variously sized stones to rebuild the walls without using wet binding materials such as grout or mortar.
Each of the walling specialists involved was qualified for the job with an International Certificate of Craftsmanship in Dry Stone Walling.
One of the rebuilt walls, 90m in length, is located on the north side of Lehmanns Road, while the other two, 60m and 20m long, are on the south side of Pine Park Drive.
The wall beside Lehmanns Road was rebuilt over eight weeks earlier this year. The others were finished in October after six weeks of work.
Dry-stone walling is regarded as one of the oldest trades in the world. The sturdy walls have been built in rural and urban areas throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas for thousands of years.
Victoria's dry-stone walls are considered European heritage because they reflect aspects of the agricultural, economic and social life at the time of settlement.
The walls began appearing in Australia following the arrival of European migrants, who were typically from countries with long histories of dry-stone walling, such as England, Scotland, Ireland and Germany.
Dry-stone walls were commonly used in the past to form land allotment boundaries or to contain livestock, reducing the need for shepherds on pastoral estates.
Dating back to the 1840s, the builders of dry-stone walls in the Wollert area used weathered basalt found on the ground’s surface.
Along with providing building material, the use of the surface stones helped clear paddocks to increase livestock feed growth, made land more arable for planting, and conserved timber for fencing.
The Epping Road Upgrade is adding extra lanes and improving intersections between Craigieburn Road East in Wollert and Memorial Avenue in Epping.
The project will also build sections of shared walking and cycling paths and new on-road bicycle lanes to improve safety and connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists.
Due for completion in late 2025, the upgrade will provide safer, more-reliable journeys for the 35,000 drivers who use Epping Road daily in Melbourne’s north.
MRPV is delivering the Epping Road Upgrade with construction partner McConnell Dowell.
More information about the Epping Road Upgrade is available on the Epping Road Upgrade project page.