LOCAL QUARRIES
There are a number of local quarries in the area. They provide sand, clay, gravel. One small one, very close to the site, could be utilised quite easily.
LOCAL GEOLOGY
The glasshouse mountains are comprised of mineral called 'Comendite', see image below. Comendite is a hard, igneous rock, a type of light blue grey rhyolite. Comendite occurs in the mountains Tibrogargan, Coonowrin, Tunbubudla, Coochin, Saddleback, Tibberoowuccum and Ngungun in the Glass house mountains, South East Queensland, Australia. The blue colour is caused by very small crystals of other minerals. These mountains are volcanic plugs which were formed millions of years ago and have slowly become exposed through erosion of softer Landsborough sandstone. Eroding basalt rocks have formed the fertile soils of the nearby Maleny rainforest areas. Rocks and landscapes of the Sunshine Coast by Warwick Willmott, Brisbane: Geological Society of Australia Queensland Division, 2007)
ARTICLE: SCIENTISTS TURN SAND INTO STONE
"Imagine being able to make spray-on roads across the desert, or being able to take a sandcastle home from the beach in the form of a solid rock sculpture. These are just two possibilities presented by a new treatment for sand pioneered by Murdoch University’s Dr Ralf Cord-Ruwisch. The treatment alters the consistency of sand, doing anything from solidifying it slightly to changing it into a substance as hard as marble. It blends a calcium solution, bacteria and other inexpensive compounds, forcing the bacteria to form carbonate precipitates with the calcium. This creates calcium carbonate, also called calcite, identical to limestone. This kind of technology can be used in mining, and civil works, it does not require oxygen so can be used underwater or underground. Tests have been done already creating blocks of sand as large as a shipping container. The possibilities are endless."
(Scientists turn sand to stone. http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20090705-19095.html)
Woodfordia could become a testing ground for how this can be utilised in the construction industry, harnessing local materials.
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