Lots near Adelaide’s oldest quarry for sale on hills face
Land is up for grabs near Adelaide’s oldest quarry with its sellers spruiking hills face housing potential.
Construction materials company Boral is selling 3.2ha near its quarry site in the eastern suburbs with Colliers saying the land at the top of Kensington Road opens up new opportunities for housing. But the site does not currently have planning permission for any housing development.
Stonyfell Quarry in Skye is one of Adelaide’s oldest, having started operating in 1837 and its stone being used in the city’s earliest road and rail infrastructure.
Boral bought the site in the 1980s to dig out construction materials for road base, aggregates and washed sands.
A Boral spokesperson said “these subject lots are surplus to our requirements and sit in the boundary area outside of the operational footprint of our Stonyfell Quarry. The lots are zoned “Hills Face Zone” which allows for residential development”.
“The Stonyfell Quarry remains operational and we have no plans to divest further lots at our site.”
Alistair Mackie, who is SA national director of investment services at Colliers, said the site was now being offered as three hillside blocks for housing.
“This site offers a unique balance between development potential and environmental preservation,” Mackie said.
“With its elevation, outlook and proximity to key amenities and the CBD, the fundamentals for future residential outcomes in this location are exceptionally strong.”
It was in 1858 that it was bought by Henry Clark and his fiancé Annie Martin named the property Stonyfell after English slopes called fells.
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Boral uses the quarry for sandstone and quartzite – sandstone a sedimentary rock used for domestic construction and housewares since prehistoric times.
Sandstone is one of the most common types of sedimentary rock and is found in sedimentary basins throughout the world. It is often mined for use as a construction material or as a raw material used in manufacturing.
In the subsurface, sandstone often serves as an aquifer for groundwater or as a reservoir for oil and natural gas.
Quartzite is a non-foliated metamorphic rock composed almost entirely of quartz.
The interlocking crystalline structure of quartzite makes it a hard, tough, durable rock. Quartzite is very resistant to chemical weathering and often forms ridges and resistant hilltops.
