Arabic version: نحّاتو سيدني يرممون شعار مركز شرطة دارلينغهيرست

According to ABC News, Sydney stonemason Luke McDermott is carving a new sandstone lion’s head for a 127-year-old coat of arms at the former Darlinghurst Police Station, now home to the Qtopia museum.

Armed with a hammer drill and cold chisel, McDermott is recreating a lion whose original face was worn away by decades of air and rain erosion. He has designed the replacement using photographs of real lions and archival images of sandstone lions from the turn of the 20th century.

The NSW Heritage Stoneworks team, based in Alexandria in Sydney’s inner south, has spent six months working on the crest overlooking Taylor Square. McDermott, a 17-year veteran of the workshop, said redesigning a lion’s face after original details have been lost was difficult, particularly when joining the crown and lion in one carving.

McDermott previously completed a large unicorn’s head for the coat of arms above the National Arts School gates in 2023. That work initially had no reference image, although the team later found a photograph of the original and determined his reconstruction was accurate enough not to restart.

NSW Heritage Stoneworks maintains more than 800 state-owned heritage sites, including schools, courthouses and fire stations. Stonemasonry is on the federal government’s Australian Apprenticeships Priority List, while manager Peter Thurloe said recruiting staff remains challenging because apprenticeships last four years and the sector competes with mining wages.