Time capsules to be embedded in walls during 'one of a kind' stone festival

Attendees at the Great Australian Stone Festival in Wellington will be able to help build a number of traditional walls and creations around town.

The first, in Bell Park, will be a boundary fence and include designs telling Wiradjuri stories.

The second, in Cameron Park, will feature seating and incorporate stories through monoliths and shapes.

The third will be a giant pint of Guinness built out of slate outside the Lion of Waterloo - for St Patrick's Day.

Punters will be able to embed messages to the future in the form of time capsules that will be unveiled if the walls are ever disassembled.

Emma Knowles, festival director and owner of Stone of Arc, said everyone she came across had an interest in dry stone walling, and she was keen to tap into this curiosity at the festival.

Running from Friday, March 15 to Monday, March 26, it is to be the first traditional stone festival ever to run in the southern hemisphere - and the organisers hoped to make it a biennial event.

"It's really strange if I say that I'm a dry stone waller and people don't react to that massively," Ms Knowles told the Daily Liberal.

"That's the most fascinating thing for me. It's every demographic, every age ... I can have lads pull up in 'doof doof' cars next to me, [and I'm] building a wall, and they just get out and just go 'Oh, that's amazing.' And they just want to know about it."

High on the priorities for the festival is to keep the ancient skills of dry stone walling alive, and pique the interest of new wallers.

"There are so few of us in the country who know the authentic, traditional skills," Ms Knowles said.

"And what my mission is, is to make sure ... we pass those skills on to as many people as possible, whether they are hobbyists or professionals.

"We need people who are custodians of the authentic skills. These days it's all cladding, gabion walling, pretend dry stone - sticking mortar in it - and that's because people don't know the real skills.

"And if they did, they might employ them because they're far cheaper and long lasting and they're a feature and a beautiful artwork as well."

The festival will span two weekends - the first will offer workshops for professionals at Stone of Arc training centre, where a feature wall will be built by dry stone wall masters.

During the second weekend, people from every walk of life will be able to "get their hands on stone" - and visitors will be able to camp and stay nearby.

There will be an array of activities on offer to keep everyone entertained, even if they're not knowledgeable about dry stone walling.

There will be a live band called The Stones, as well as Melbourne DJ Joey Lightbulb, playing to guests during the evenings.

There will be a stone feast, alfresco dining, a moonlit dinner between the walls, and the 'stone olympics' which will give punters the opportunity to compete, have fun and win prizes.

Kids will be able to make a wall out of wood and participate in a giant puzzle, there will be stone and spoon competitions, stone skimming, and a competition called 'stone the crows' which will have participants compete to knock down metal crows made by Macquarie Correctional Centre.

"It's an event that hopefully the whole town can enjoy," Ms Knowles said.

There will be roving entertainment including musicians, serenading the wallers and carvers building masterpieces throughout the town.

Ms Knowles said an event like was "unique" to Australia, and the southern hemisphere.

"People understand that an opportunity like this before has only come to those who have travelled to Europe," Ms Knowles said.

"And so when people are saying to me in Sydney, oh, yeah, but it's five hours up to Wellington, I'm like, yeah, it's five hours, not tens of thousands of dollars and a journey to Europe - Europe's coming here."

"It'll be an opportunity for lots of people who love stone to get together and actually share their skills and be creative and leave a lasting mark on the landscape."

The dry stone walls that are built during the festival will feature on a new dry stone trail app that will attract people off the Mitchell Highway, through Wellington.

Find out more about the Great Australian Stone Festival and book tickets at https://stoneofarc.com/events/international-stone-festival/