British stone machinery supplier New Stone Age has sold two walling stone dressing machines to a quarry operator in Australia.

The machines are made in Italy by Bombieri & Venturi but were designed specifically for the UK market by New Stone Age, which identified the need for the machines to improve walling production at UK quarries.

The machines come in different sizes and the Australians have taken an SDA 600 2H (two head) and an SDE 600 2H, for dressing the faces and the ends of walling stones.

The machines have been bought by Australian company Gosford Quarries based near Sydney. The city has a tradition of building in stone and still uses stone for new build.

Gosford, with more than 100 years’ trading behind it, is a leading sandstone supplier in Australia. It wanted to see the machines in operation before committing, so personnel from the company flew to the UK and New Stone Age took them to see the machines at work at A D Calvert in the heart of Wensleydale, North Yorkshire.

A D Calvert operates the Witton Fell Quarry, which is six miles from the company’s stone yard and processing plant, where there is also a showroom displaying the skills of the company’s master craftsmen. It supplies products in other sandstones as well as its own Witton Fell.

After seeing the stone dressing machines at work, Gosford ordered the SDA and SDE for its own operation.

After that, New Stone Age also received an order for one of its dressing machines from Spain, which was due to be delivered at the end of September, when New Stone Age will be in Verona, Italy, at the Marmomacc exhibition supporting Bombieri & Venturi and the makers of the other machinery it suppliers. See bit.ly/New-Stone-Age2015.