Sandstone care in Waverley

Waverley, the suburb that gave the council its name, is centred on the Charing Cross junction where Bronte Road meets Carrington Road. Its building stock spans the 1840s to the 1930s: early worker cottages in timber and stone, late Victorian and Federation terrace rows on High Street and Henrietta Street, large freestanding villas, and a handful of Inter-War Art Deco flats. On High Street, Glenrock Terrace is a row of sandstone workers cottages. Edina, the 1880s mansion on Birrell Street, is now part of the War Memorial Hospital, and Mary Immaculate Church on Victoria Street dates from 1912. To the east, Waverley Cemetery runs along Hawkesbury sandstone cliffs. Sandstone appears as cottage walls, retaining walls, boundary walls and steps.

Waverley spans two quite different exposures. The eastern streets near the cemetery look over the ocean, and stone there collects salt that crystallises in the pores and slowly loosens the surface. The western part, around Charing Cross and Birrell Street, is more sheltered, and its problems are older: walls and steps that have weathered for well over a century, lichen and mould under street and garden trees, rising damp in cottages without damp courses, and grime from traffic along Bronte Road. Older stone also tends to carry the evidence of past repairs, such as hard cement pointing or patches of paint, which change how the stone ages around them (inferred from setting and building age).

Waverley Council lists the Charing Cross conservation area along Bronte Road, from Church Street south to St Catherine's School on Macpherson Street, taking in Carrington Road, Victoria Street, Albion Street and the peripheral terrace streets. The area's buildings are described as face brick, stone and rendered masonry, and an 1860s underground sandstone water tank survives in Macpherson Street. Inside the area, or for a listed item such as Edina or the cemetery's stone buildings, clause 5.10 generally brings works under development consent, with a written exemption available from the council for genuinely minor maintenance. For restoration, repointing or a new sealer, ask Waverley first. In terrace rows and flats, shared walls and fences may also involve neighbours or an owners corporation.

From Double Bay the suburb of Waverley is around 12 minutes by car, via Bondi Junction. Around Charing Cross the shopping strip and bus routes make parking tight, so we book a space or driveway for the day and keep footpaths clear outside the village shops. Terrace jobs usually mean carrying gear through the house or down a lane, and floors are protected. Near the cemetery cliffs we watch the wind, because strong onshore gusts are no good for sealing. Old stone is handled patiently, with biocides and poultices given time to work. Rinse water is held behind bunds and vacuumed up, so it stays out of the kerb and the stormwater system.