Fragments of time: the lives and works of the Willunga slate carvers

The discovery of slate at Willunga in 1840 was to shape the character and future of this small rural settlement forever.The news of inexhaustible slate quarries and the promise of land inexorably drew quarrymen, farmers, tradesmen and their families from Britain to the Willunga District in the mid-nineteenth century. Among these hopeful settlers were the Willunga slate carvers, a small group of men who used Willunga slate to carve an enduring collection of gravestones, mantelpieces and decorative plaques. This book shows aspects of life in the Province of South Australia through the lens of the Willunga slate carvers as their lives intersected with tumultuous events even as they carved the legacy that exists today. This fascinating account shows that their slate carvings are fragments of time, tangible memorials of experience reaching to us across generations from a unique confluence of time and place.… (more)