Leaving England on my adventure to Australia 9 months ago, I never would’ve dreamed of the reality I currently find myself in… stone walling and living with two Aussie boys in the Southern Highlands in order to earn my visa extension. With my initial couple of months working on another farm up and farms elsewhere reluctant to take on new staff with the difficulties of the draught here, I took matters into my own hands. Through a contact of a friend, I’m now building stone walls on properties in the area.
Now let me explain my exact role here, as there’s no kidding that I’m constructing these stone walls single handedly! With my perfectionist and somewhat artistic eye, my main job is to plug the front wall faces to give an aesthetically pleasing final result. Whilst the cold, frosty 6am morning starts haven’t been my finest hours, I’ve really thrown myself into working onsite and enjoying the camaraderie of the boys during breaks. As the weeks have passed, I’ve got to see the progress of the projects we are working on and appreciate the process of traditional stone walling.
So as I continue my new found profession as a stone waller in the Southern Highlands, I can already taste Australian spring and look forward to working away in the heat of a summers day. It may not be the most glamorous of jobs and takes a lot of patience, but it certainly is one to add to my CV as another string to my bow, or more appropriately ‘rock to my wall’.
Dani Aneka 