Today I visited Fremantle again to see further proof of the old mortar almost a peach in colour or of terracotta to tan in colour. In dealing with different limestone over the years it varies in colour tremendously. Moore river stone is very biscuit in colour.
Even a photo Ill publish later shows one of the early historic buildings with the layers of paint pretending to be white wash removed.
It clearly shows the stone to be quite tan in nature and the pointing to of two distinct colours. The construction mortar is quite dark, The facing mortar is a lighter tan almost a peach colour as discussed before.
I would say this stone for its softer attributes which allow for the pillow face finish it was given. Many of the deliveries we receive from some quarries these days is extremely hard. The axe bounces of much of this especially when there is a high content of cap rock.
The scrap of this stone would have been slaked on site along with the soil colour made up the larger mortar component attributes in both cases. Unslaked burnt fines of the stone would forming sand would make part of the mortar giving it the colour.
I dare say some of the old washes would have been given this light brown colour from the darker stone colour, less calcified no doubt an higher in silica I believe.
Here is an old Fremantle stone wall I found that is of what I believe an original point protected by an outhouse for years under the cover of tin in a row of terraces.
The image of the luxury building will show darker mortar samples again right on the harbour of Fremantle.
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