From generations of stonemasons in Ireland, Steven Loughrey arrived in Canberra six years ago believing a big future awaited anyone who could chip and fit stone as they have done for centuries in the Emerald Isle. He was right.

"Canberra would be the best place in Australia for seeing stonework. Melbourne would be behind it," Mr Loughrey says.

He and his team are building retaining walls in a new Griffith garden with stone quarried from Wee Jasper, near Yass. The rapidly-cooled, olivine basalt formed from shallow lava flows about 25 million years ago is ideal. It can be found on stone projects throughout the territory and eastern Australia.

"I travel around Brisbane and places like that, it is a different line of work, it is more cladding with 25mm stone glued to brickwork, I didn't see much stone masonry, whereas this [stone retaining wall in Griffith] is more like we do back home," he said.

Mr Loughrey built the mortared feature walls inside the National Arboretum and dry joint-style work close to the visitors' centre in 2013. He did the stone work on the Boundless Playground in Parkes and mortared stone pitching on Horse Park Drive, and stone work at the Red Centre garden at the Australian National Botanic Gardens.

He works with bluestone and sometimes sandstone, which is softer, easier to work with and less expensive. The Wee Jasper bluestone is special. "That particular stone is pretty unique, it is layered; some quarries it comes in blocks and has to be blasted but this actually comes out in thin layers, so it is easier to work with and ship," he says.

East County Offaly is probably more famous for Tullamore Dew blended Irish whiskey but, in nearby County Westmeath, a small town of 1000 people, generations of Loughrey stone masons have made their mark building churches and restored castles.

"I served my time with my father, Joe. He learned from his father and his father built the limestone church in our local town. We do headstones and all that kind of [work], whereas my father's brother has a workshop where weare from back home, where they do various ends of the stone masonry," Mr Loughrey said.

Canberra's stone masons are shaping landscapes significantly even though carrying big stones is awkward and hard on backs. Dan Wright of Wales, Shane Campbell, who comes from the north of Ireland, and Alan McLaughlin from County Westmeath, Ireland, work steadily alongside Mr Loughrey.

The wall in Griffith takes shape after a lump of moist mortar is flung on the ground's clay surface and stones are stacked to level with a yellow line of string. Concrete and bricks fortify the wall on the opposite side of its featured surface.

'We just chip and fit as we go. You need to have a good eye for the stone to see which way it is going," Mr Loughrey says.

He wanted a quirky name to call his business and settled on Stone Mad. "[Canberra] is the capital, it is always going to grow and get established quickly. It's a nice looking city," he says, watching his latest wall take shape.