Highvale Random Sandstone Boulder Retaining Walls

Sandstone boulder retaining walls establish a building platform

Sandstone boulder retaining walls provide an economic way to define a building platform on sloping properties.

This property in Highvale in the Samford Valley in the Moreton Bay Region has two long rock retaining walls to establish the building platform. The smaller wall retains the cut on the high side of the slope. The larger wall retains the fill on the lower side of the slope and for more than half of its length is it a dual section structure with an upper and lower wall.

I recent years, a cottage has been built above some of this dual-section rock wall. The drone footage in this video is courtesy of Luke Ollington who constructed the cottage.

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This post follows through the progress of the development of the retaining walls on this site through four galleries:

Site as Purchased

Preliminary Earthworks

Top Retaining Wall

Main Retaining Wall

Site as purchased

The property is located in Highvale in the Samford Valley. It sits on a ridge which drops down to the flood plain of the South Pine River. A building platform had been established on the site at the approved location. However, no retaining structures had been constructed.

Preliminary earthworks

Preliminary earthworks on the building platform involved trimming the existing earthworks to the correct level and preparing both the upper and lower sides of the platform for the construction of boulder retaining walls.

Earthworks elsewhere on the property involved tree clearing and services trenching. Platforms were established on the lower sections of the site for future sheds, water tanks and waste treatment.

Top retaining wall

The top sandstone retaining wall on this site is constructed of random sandstone boulders. It is approx 2 metres high and tapers at each end.

Main retaining wall

The main retaining wall is also constructed using random sandstone blocks. For much of its length it consists of two levels in a tiered arrangement of boulder walls. The overall view of this wall is best seen in the drone video above.

Some years after the completion of this wall, a set of diamond-cut sandstone steps was constructed at one end of the wall. Details of these steps and be see in this project.