The NSW Legislative Assembly passed a resolution in 1891 directing exclusive use of colonial marble from state owned quarries to be used in public works.1 In 1907, Hardy found a grey white marble at Oakley Creek, via Warialda2, and sent samples to the Government Geologist in Sydney, thereafter obtaining two leases to quarry the stone3. This was quoted by renowned professor Archibald Liversidge4 in ‘Minerals of NSW’.
Patent 12679 in 1908 and Patent 16176 in 1909 were registered for ‘Hardy’s Patent Marble’ or ‘Hardy’s Marble Concrete Compound’ - rubbed face marble and stone concrete compound for building, paving and monumental works that used marble, granite and basalt with ‘net wire and steel bars’5.
The NSW Government exhibit at the Franco-British Exhibition in London in 1908 was accompanied by a booklet ‘the building and ornamental stones of NSW’, produced by R T Baker6, curator of the Technological Museum.7 Illustrations and descriptions included Warialda marble. Samples of Hardy’s Warialda marble and his Patent marble were in the 1908 Charles F Laseron Collection in the Ultimo Technical Library8.
Under the 1903 Commonwealth Act, Hardy held the patents for the time limit of 14 years9. About this time, the international patent laws changed and he was unable to pursue them further. His daughter recalled his search for a substance that could replace costly marble.
"[He made a series of] small trial moulds of types of cement and sand to test their strength, and having obtained this he then experimented with different types of marble chips and to make an acceptable surface he then polished in the manufacture of monuments. When he achieved a satisfactory product, he made moulds of the various types of monuments and filled them with the mixture, casting in marble sheets for the inscriptions”.10
This is a clever variation on the terrazzo technique using a special type of render with stone chips and marble dust that enabled a high quality polished finish. Hardy clearly states the material to be used with standard ferrous reinforcing but, because of his technique where the stone chips are placed onto a sticky surface, he used a thicker cover to the reinforcement such that the cement around the reinforcement is remaining alkaline and not likely to carbonate. Hence the longevity of a Hardy monument.
M.W. Hardy's Patent 12679 incised into his terrazzo binder.
Photos by Sue Jackson-Stepowski.
The 1913 Hardy Patent for a Marble Casket used pulverised marble in cement that ‘fulfilled all the sanitary requirements’ and to be as ‘permanent as the tombs of the Pharaohs’. ‘The first burial in a marble casket ever carried out in Sydney was the transported mortal remains of Mr Wigzell from Moree to Funeral Director, Charles Kinsela of Oxford Street, for burial in Waverley Cemetery.11
Hardy travelled widely in the NSW North West to showcase his patents - ‘Any conceivable design executed with promptness in either Colonial or Imported Granites, Marbles or other stone’12. His business of Narrabri, Gunnedah and Inverell, was advertised in a wide range of publications and editorials. Sometimes a Post Office Chambers, 114A Pitt Street Sydney address was used. In 1905 one advertisement heading began with ‘have you done your duty - honour heroes by erecting monuments to their memory’13 inferring commemoration of the Boer War casualties.
The Warialda Standard 1909 carried Hardy’s advertisement, saying his patent could be made in to a wide variety of products or ‘moulded in any shape and with a surface equal to the finest stone’ - kerbing, basins, flower pots, door steps, window sills, wash stands, shop counter ‘or flags of any shape and for all purposes’.14 He supplied 2 x 18 foot long terrazzo kerb sections for Moree Cemetery.15
The L R Gibson16 monument has incised lead letters that roll into the spine of pages of a book, made of a terrazzo base. This monument is individually listed in the Rookwood Cemetery Monument database for high conservation values and under rarity says:-
Unique Design: concrete and marble amalgamation with pebblecrete kerbing and balls evidently constructed of mass concrete as there is no rusting or star cracking, red concrete inset as background pattern into marble. HARDY Monumental Mason from Narrabri.
The first media reports found to date citing Hardy’s technical skills are from 1913. Having access to his patents is invaluable for the preventative maintenance and materials conservation of Hardy’s monuments. This data is vital in understanding how to conserve a Hardy monument, provide insights into the foundation structure and the terrazzo infill formula. To undertake repairs would involve close range inspection and determination of the ingredients used, their relative proportions and particle sizes etc., together knowing the mix recipes. A repair would require a conservator with extensive experience in many masonry type materials, rather than someone experienced in terrazzo flooring - a very different league.
Footnotes
1Sydney Morning Herald 25 Aug 1891
2Northern Mail Lismore 13 July 1907
3Muswellbrook Chronicle 17 July 1907
4A Liversidge (1846-1927) Sydney Uni. professor geology and Royal Society of NSW Dictionary of Biography http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/liversidge-archibald-4027 accessed 2020jun
5Hall monument a work of Art in North Western Courier 16 Dec 1920 p2
6https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2143436
7Byron Bay Record Sat 10 Oct 1908. In 2020 is the NSW Powerhouse Museum.
8Image number 217233, then 983, then 4545, and finally as C4438 Powerhouse Museum https://collection.maas.museum/object/217234
9Official Year Book of Commonwealth of Aus. no.1 1908 page 907
10Dr N. Wing letter to Narrabri Historical Society dated 11th March 1966
11Cowra Free Press Sat 18 Oct 1913
12Muswellbrook Chronical Sat 20 Jan 1906
13Muswellbrook Chronical Sat 20 Jan 1906
14Catholic Press Thu 26 Feb 1914
15North Western Courier 9 Mar 1922
16L R Gibson d.1920 New Methodist 4 grave 572 Rookwood Cemetery, Sydney
