The Sydney workshop where 100-year-old sculptures are made new

Armed with a hammer drill and a cold chisel, Luke McDermott is carving a sandstone lion's head to look exactly like it would've 127 years ago.

The problem is the 127-year-old lion he's trying to copy has no face: worn away by decades of erosion from air and rain.

Instead, Mr McDermott will model the new lion, perched on a crown, using photos of both real lions and archival ones of sandstone lions from the turn of the 20th century.

The work is painstaking and precise, as it needs to honour the original and hopefully last another 120 years, too.

"The tricky stuff is redesigning a new lion's face," McDermott said.

"Once the information is lost, it's quite hard.

"Then trying to get the crown and the lion together in a single carving can sometimes be a bit of a challenge."

For six months, the NSW Heritage Stoneworks team has been working on the 127-year-old coat of arms that looks out to Taylor Square from the old Darlinghurst Police Station, which now houses the Qtopia museum.

It's far from Mr McDermott's first rodeo, who's a 17-year veteran of the Heritage Stoneworks that's based in Alexandria in Sydney's inner south.

In 2023, he completed a large unicorn's head for the coat of arms above the gates of the National Arts School, which is just across the road from Qtopia.

Mr McDermott said this was more challenging because there was no reference image to work from, forcing him to use his creativity to complement the 1870s original.

Halfway through the job, the team found a photo of the original. But because what he had made was so accurate, there was no need to start over.

"I started with nothing," Mr McDermott said.

"The fact that I had done a pretty good job considering the information that I had available to me … I was very happy with the result."

Schools, courthouses, fire stations

More than 800 state-owned heritage sites are maintained by NSW Heritage Stoneworks, including old school buildings, courthouses and fire stations.

Stonemasonry manager Peter Thurloe, who has been with Heritage since 1995, says some jobs are very large and geometric, like a courthouse, or very fine and artistic, such as the flora and fauna carvings at the Ultimo TAFE building.

There are about 4,800 stonemasons in Australia, according to the last census.

Working with heritage buildings is one facet of the industry, which also includes housing construction, monumental stonemasonry and quarrying.

Stonemasonry is on the federal government's Australian Apprenticeships Priority List, which gives eligible full-time apprentices access to $10,000.

The government's program also offers $5,000 to employers to encourage training apprentices.

Mr Thurloe said attracting staff is a challenge. Apprenticeships take four years, and it's difficult to compete with wages in the mining sector. Dust is also a major workplace hazard in the industry, something Mr Thurloe says is taken very seriously.

He says there's a unique satisfaction in the job because you are maintaining parts of the state's history.

"Once we have attracted people into an apprenticeship, they stay because it's hugely satisfying," Mr Thurloe said.

"It has kept me happy for 30 plus years."

NSW Minister for Public Spaces Paul Scully said apprenticeships like those at the Heritage Stoneworks are creating stable opportunities for prospective stonemasons.

"Stonemasonry often doesn't come up in your list of your top five apprenticeships, but it is in demand," Mr Scully said.

"The Heritage Stoneworks team have a good connection with TAFE, making sure there are opportunities for apprenticeships.

"This is good long-term work, looking after some of the most magnificent buildings that New South Wales has to offer."