Sandstone cleaning in La Perouse

La Perouse occupies the northern headland at the entrance to Botany Bay, with only a few hundred residents among some of Sydney's oldest European sites and a long Aboriginal history. The octagonal Macquarie Watchtower, the area's first building, went up in stone in 1820 to 1822, and the French erected the Lapérouse monument, an obelisk, in 1825. Bare Island Fort, designed by James Barnet and fortified in 1885, is reached by footbridge and is on the State Heritage Register, as is the La Perouse Mission Church on Adina Avenue. Congwong Bay and Frenchmans Bay offer sheltered swimming, and Kamay Botany Bay National Park surrounds the area. Stone on private homes appears as fences, garden walls, steps and paving.

Houses at La Perouse sit between the open ocean and Botany Bay, and wind from almost any direction brings salt. Stone facing the water develops a gritty crust and loses grains at its edges. The coastal heath and national park bring leaf litter and seed pods that stain paving, and shaded walls under trees grow lichen and algae. Sandy soil in gardens leaves gritty tide-marks along low walls, and fine dust from Port Botany lands on fence caps and paths. Rust from gates and fittings marks stone close to metal. Older homes also tend to have weathered sandstone and old repairs in hard cement (inferred from setting).

La Perouse is in Randwick City Council. Randwick includes Botany Bay National Park among its conservation areas, and several nearby places, including Bare Island Fort and the Mission Church, are on the State Heritage Register, where the Heritage Act may require its own approval. Under the heritage provisions of Randwick's local plan, works to listed places and within these areas usually need consent, with written sign-off available for genuinely minor upkeep. If your home is near these sites or you are unsure of its status, ask Randwick before restoration, repointing or a new sealer. Public land, the national park and the foreshore are managed by government agencies, and our work stays within private boundaries.

La Perouse is about 32 minutes from our Double Bay base, at the far end of Anzac Parade and well past the beaches we visit most, so we usually combine visits with other jobs in the area. The streets are quiet and parking is generally easy outside summer weekends, when visitors fill the loop and the beaches. Garden beds are protected, the downhill edge of each work zone is dammed with a small bund, and the wash water goes into our recovery tank rather than the drains or the bays. Sealing is only done on calm, dry days, because wind on the headland can carry mist and dust. We work directly with owners and send photographs when the work is finished.