Sach Killam

Sach trained at Woodlawn Cemetery in Canada under Danish Master Conservation Stonemason Per Neumeyer, with Tamara Anson-Cartwright as conservation mentor.

He moved to Australia and Rookwood Cemetery in 2008 and helped establish the Monumental-Heritage team that still exists coday, completing best practice cemetery conservation and lime mortar work. Recent conservation works the include Hyde Park Barracks, Berghofer Monument (Mt. Victoria Cemetery), and Vaucluse House.

In his spare time, Sach carves small marble figures (especially Cycladic and other prehistoric forms) from recycled and NSW stone, but he was happy to get a chance to practice with a great piece of sandstone and an interesting challenge.

About the work

This work is based on my favourite capital in the Old Presbyterian Section at Rookwood, with a little bit of Norman or Norse styling.

It was completed only by hand with no power tools, pneumatics, grinders, etc in order to better understand the historic process.

I chose a strong sandstone so the flying fern volutes would be as robust as possible, but the coarse nature of the sandstone proved a different challenge: very different from marble.