Marble discovered and mined on the Upper Macleay in the late nineteenth century was of such high quality that it was selected for use in columns in the vestibule of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
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The marble was superior to imported marble, supplies were said to be inexhaustible so big things were expected from this find.
The marble was part of a limestone belt averaging about 100 metres in thickness extending from Pipers Creek, through Dondingalong and Yessabah to Willi Willi in a great arc.
Around 1899, Thomas Russell mined a quantity of marble from a quarry at Grass Tree Hill on the Willi Willi Road, Upper Macleay.
Russell had previously worked as a stonemason on Trial Bay Gaol under Benjamin Thomas.
Thomas Russell advertised for tenders to transport the marble from the quarry seventeen miles (25 kilometres) to the wharf at Greenhill for shipping to Sydney.
The successful tenderer was William Mainey who had trouble transporting one of the columns which was too heavy for his wagon.
The wagon was only designed to carry about fifty bags of corn, so the marble columns were cut into manageable lengths with a cross cut saw, aided by sand and water.
Specimens of the marble were exhibited at the Kempsey Show in 1902 and were much admired.
Walter Vernon, Government Architect, visited the quarry that year to see if the marble would be suitable for use in the twenty-four columns to be erected in the vestibule of the Art Gallery then being built in the Domain, Sydney.
The marble had a warm chocolate colour and was studded with small crinoids (fossils) and veins of white limestone ran through it. When polished, its beauty was shown to advantage in column form.
The original Art Gallery of New South Wales on the current site was designed by the architect John Horbury Hunt who had earlier designed Frederickton Public School.
The Art Gallery was opened in December 1885, although more additions were planned. Hunt produced further designs but these were rejected by the trustees as impractical and too costly.
In 1895, Hunt was dismissed and the Colonial Architect Walter Vernon was appointed to complete the building. Vernon completed the entrance vestibule which utilised the columns of Kempsey marble in 1902.
The marble pillars supported the oval dome of the vestibule and are still a source of admiration today.
In the end the high cost of carriage and shipping from such a remote location meant further use of Macleay marble in the Sydney building industry was not viable.
A column which broke in transit and was abandoned near the original quarry is a silent reminder of what might have been.
