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Thanks for all the advice. I decided to go down further, and eventually got past the conglomerate into the pure clay underneath, where things got a little easier.. I then excavated the sides to make the hole a trapizod shape. Final figure was, 700 x 700 x 700 deep at the bottom, I carried the 700 x 700 up the walls about 200mm and then sloped the remaining 500mm of depth to 500 x 500 at ground level. I then drove a 1.8m galvanised steel lintel into the centre of the hole so that it just reached top of the hole (that's 1.1m into the earth below the bottom of the hole). That whole space has now been filled with concrete, and my pier form on top as well. I used a couple of layers of lengths of rebar inside the pit in a tick tac toe pattern, and a few rebar verticals inserted into the footing and extending into the pier column. An exhausting day, especially with yesterday's heat.
I will let it cure for a while. What's an adequate length of time? I was thinking at least a week. Should I do anything to help it cure, like hose it down (although unlike a slab, most of it is hidden underground).
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