Ōamaru Stone (Parkside Quarries)

How can Oamaru Stone be used?
The exceptional quality, versatility, and purity of Ōamaru Stone makes it a great choice for a variety of applications such as cladding, walls, bespoke interior decor, landscaping products, sculpture, and artwork. It is a durable and low-maintenance material that can be used in many residential, commercial, and public building projects. 

Internal:
Enhance the beauty of your interior design concepts with the exceptional flexibility of natural, pure Ōamaru Stone from New Zealand. Our Ōamaru Stone architectural limestone can be custom-cut, carved, and shaped to almost any size, shape, and design to create stunning design elements that perfectly complement your decor.

Our high-quality and durable Ōamaru Stone is easy to maintain and offers remarkable versatility as both a sculpting stone and building material. With Ōamaru Stone, the possibilities for interior design features are endless, including feature walls, fireplaces, artwork, sculpture, and even lighting.

External:
Whether you're working on a modern or traditional building project, Ōamaru Stone architectural limestone will seamlessly complement your design. This versatile building material and sculpting stone is of exceptional quality, durable, and requires little maintenance. At Ōamaru Stone, we can cut, carve and shape our limestone to suit your project's specific size, shape, and design requirements. Our range of exterior options includes, but is not limited to, veneer cladding and slip, corner stones, decorative mouldings, columns, balustrades, railings, engraved name and date stones, landscaping products, sculptures, and custom designs.

Landscaping:
Choose Ōamaru Stone, the natural New Zealand limestone for enhancing outdoor spaces. Its durability and easy maintenance make it an ideal choice for garden design and landscaping. With our custom cutting, carving, and shaping service, we can turn your outdoor space ideas into reality using Ōamaru Stone. You can also use our Ōamaru Stone for sculpting or as a supply for your own sculpting projects.

Our Ōamaru Stone limestone landscaping products are varied and include, but are not limited to garden walls, garden beds, edging, retaining walls, rock gardens, and sculptures.

Custom:
Ōamaru Stone can turn your design ideas into reality, as we offer custom cutting, carving, shaping, engraving, and drilling of our architectural limestone. Our advanced scanning tool can even copy existing products, regardless of damage. The limestone comes in different colors and tones, ranging from creamy to deep caramel and vibrant ochre, rust, and copper.

We enjoy the challenge of creating unique designs, and with the help of our skilled team and state-of-the-art CNC (computer numeric control) fabricating machine, we can produce virtually any size, shape, and design. Our 5-axis CNC machine is one of only two in Australasia and the largest in New Zealand, providing incredible precision for even the most intricate details.

Why choose Ōamaru Natural Stone?
Experience the excellence and adaptability of Ōamaru Stone, and turn your creative vision into a reality.

Our architectural limestone can be customized to fit your specific needs and preferences, with options to custom cut, carve, and shape the stone in almost any size, shape, or design. Ōamaru Stone can be used to enhance the beauty of both traditional and contemporary designs, whether for outdoor and indoor applications, landscaping features, or personalized stonework.

Unique:
Ōamaru Stone limestone has a consistent high quality due to its high percentage of calcium carbonate (which is usually between 94-98%, according to chemical analysis). This limestone has an even texture and fine-grained structure. Each block of natural Ōamaru Stone is distinct and possesses unique colors and tones that are exclusive to limestone from Parkside Quarry, our family-owned quarry situated in the Waitaki district of the South Island.

Ōamaru Stone limestone is available in three different varieties, namely Kotakota (Ivory), Karamea (Caramel), and Pākākā (Autumnal). Ivory limestone, which is creamy or white in color, may also feature eye-catching bronze or gold veins. Pākākā is a highly colored limestone that has hues of ochre, rust, and copper. Karamea is a denser limestone with deeper colors.

Versatile:
Ōamaru Stone is a building material and sculpting stone that is both durable and easy to maintain. Its timeless aesthetic adds a sense of grace and permanence to various types of constructions such as residential, commercial, and public buildings, as well as gardens and outdoor spaces.

The limestone comes in various sizes, thicknesses, finishes, textures, colours and tones, providing many options for use. At Ōamaru Stone, we pride ourselves on being able to create custom stonework that may have been considered impossible with limestone.

Our limestone products are diverse and can be used for external cladding, internal feature walls, corner stones, decorative mouldings (such as window and door jambs), columns, balustrades and railings, landscaping (such as garden walls, edging, and retaining walls), fireplaces, engraved date stones, sculpture, and artwork.

Cost-effective:
Individuals who have not previously used Ōamaru Stone are often delighted to discover that our limestone products are competitively priced. We provide cost-effective delivery services throughout New Zealand, which are facilitated directly from our family-owned quarry - the country's sole commercial limestone quarry specializing in this field.

By employing thinner and lighter-weight limestone Slip for exterior cladding, transportation costs have been significantly reduced. Moreover, we can generally deliver a standard house lot of cladding (Slip/Veneer/Block) within 4-6 weeks.

For six generations, our family has been involved in farming and quarrying in North Otago. Through their hard work and vision, they established Parkside Quarry, Parkside Aglime, and Parkside farm, which are all part of the legacy we continue today.

The limestone used to make Ōamaru Stone architectural limestone is responsibly sourced from high-quality, natural limestone deposits found in our family-owned quarry in Ōamaru, North Otago. Limestone has been quarried in various locations around Otago since the 1860s, with the iconic Oamaru Opera House being one of the most notable buildings constructed from this material. Nowadays, all other quarries in Otago have disappeared, except for Parkside Quarry.

There are many iconic Oamaru natural stone buildings right across New Zealand, both heritage and recent. To name just a small selection of historic buildings: The High Court - Auckland, Government House - Wellington, Sarjeant Gallery - Wanganui, The Arts Centre - Christchurch, Waitaki Boys high School - Oamaru, Otago University - Dunedin, Otago Railway Station - Dunedin.

Some more recent buildings of prominence include: North Shore Police Station - North Shore, Eichardts Private Hotel - Queenstown, Dot's Riverstone Castle - Oamaru, Forsyth Barr stadium - Dunedin.

Then and Now: Extracting Limestone from Parkside Quarry

Parkside Quarry, previously known as Parkside Farm, extracted its first limestone block in 1906. Initially, a steam-powered chainsaw mounted on rails was used to cut the stone from the quarry floor. This saw was later converted to diesel, and now a power-driven saw with 3-meter circular blades, equipped with tungsten tips, is used for cutting the limestone. These saws are hydraulic and attached to the excavators.

After cutting, the large 2-ton Ōamaru Stone slabs are removed from the quarry floor, loaded onto trucks, and transported to the factory located just 400 meters away. The limestone blocks are then loaded onto trolleys and fed into three circular saws with 1.80-meter tungsten-tipped blades, which cut the limestone into required sizes. Further fabricating can be done by a 5 Axis CNC Machine or by hand, before the Ōamaru Stone products are prepared for delivery throughout New Zealand.

New Zealand's Largest CNC Machine

In 2019, we invested in cutting-edge technology, purchasing a 5 Axis CNC saw/machine that is the largest of its kind in New Zealand and one of only two in Australasia. The 5 Axis CNC Machine allows for almost limitless design options and can custom cut, carve and shape Ōamaru Stone limestone to nearly any size, shape and design.

Low Emissions

We use very low energy for production. The limestone blocks are quarried at Parkside Quarry and then transported just 400 meters to our factory for fabrication. Afterward, the Ōamaru Stone products are delivered directly to clients throughout New Zealand from the quarry.

Zero Product Waste

Limestone offcuts are taken to our Parkside Aglime limeworks 500 meters away, where they are crushed to dust and used in products such as Parkside Aglime agricultural lime soil conditioner, track lime, and chicken grit lime. This process returns the limestone back to nature, and Ōamaru Stone is possibly the only building product with this organic benefit for the land.

To keep Ōamaru Stone exterior looking its best, an annual wash with a soft brush is recommended but not necessary to maintain its durability. Resealing is required every seven to twelve years, depending on the sealing product used for Ōamaru Stone cladding.

Before sealing, it is important to first wash down and brush clean the stone and treat any areas discolored with moss or mold using a moss/mold killer. After allowing the stone to dry, it can be treated with a water repellent sealer according to the manufacturer's instructions. However, it is important to note that Ōamaru Stone has a higher absorbance rate than concrete.

To determine if resealing is needed, spray water onto the surface. If the surface is porous, water will be absorbed, causing the stone to darken in color. Mould, moss or lichen growth is also an indicator that the stone requires treatment.

To clean Ōamaru Stone, apply a moss/mould killer, allow it to take effect, and then clean with a hard bristled brush. Avoid using a high-pressure spray as it can damage the surface of the stone. After cleaning, apply a second coat of moss/mould killer, and carry out any necessary repairs before applying the water repellent sealer.