The Kiama Library reminds us of the history of those dry-stone walls that are a prominent feature of our local rural area.
Made by hand and covering many kilometres, the stone walls are still used today. In 1856 Thomas Newing arrived on the immigrant ship Anna Maria from Kent, England.
Thomas worked all around the district as a ploughman and packed the stones in heaps while clearing a stony bit of ground at Foxground.
From these heaps, the first stone wall in the district was built to fence a paddock.
The fence proved so successful that the landholder asked him to construct another fence line. Seeing an emerging job opportunity, Newing determined to master the secrets of dry-stone wall construction, and he soon became an expert.