There are skills that whip up a primal desire in men (and women) and building stuff out of rocks in one of them. 

Stonemasonry is also one of those jobs – like house painting or running the country – that pretty much everyone thinks they could do. “It’s just stacking rocks on top of each other mate,” they say. “I can do that.” 

In reality, building a stone wall that won’t fall over and kill someone is almost impossible, which is why we got the legends from Bay Area Stoneworks to help us learn the basics.

 Andy and Stu turned up with a ute full of rocks and ran through everything from digging footings to sorting cornerstones from capping stones, before stepping back to give everyone a crack.

 And while the end result wasn’t beautiful, everyone went home with dirt on their hands and a smile on their face.