The retaining wall was 33 metres long, and they needed to lay about 165 cap pavers to finish the job.

What the hell, they thought, let’s do it and see if it works.

It did, and the videos have made the Newcastle men instant internet sensations with views hitting 10 million on social media and YouTube in just four days.

“We had seen it a very, very long time ago and had tried it,’’ Kye Nelson said.

“We had done it a few times on shorter walls and just decided to film it because we had such a long, straight wall – and I wanted to show my dad.

“We didn’t think it would go off like this, it has just exploded.’’

The video is compelling, if only because it allows the viewer to watch the domino effect of the 165 pavers before the climax – where each paver slots into place in what appears to be another domino wave going in the opposite direction with no human intervention.

It works because the pavers are placed at an exact distance apart, allowing them to just lean on the next falling tile before the very last paver lays completely flat, moving a fraction of distance further away to allow each of the leaning pavers to also move and take its position flat on the wall.

It took about 45 minutes to set up on December 19 at a worksite the five men – Mr Nelson and his workmates Deng Amourr, Rhett Jones, Col Smedley and Nick Davies – have decided to keep to themselves. 

“It doesn’t really take less time, or is even slower, it is just different and it just looks cool,’’ Mr Nelson said.

And it was not until one of their mate’s at Drift Bikes at Kotara shared it on the business’s Facebook page on Christmas Eve that it began to take off.

As of Wednesday afternoon, it had been watched 8.6 million times, shared more than 130,000 times with 59,000 likes and 20,000 comments.

It has also been uploaded on you tube and on other Facebook sites, taking the views to about 10 million in four days.

“It’s a bit of fun and it’s been great watching it go off online,’’ Mr Nelson, who took the main video, said.

“I think the physics of it has just played with people’s heads a bit and got them talking.’’

Four of the landscaping sensations got together quickly on Wednesday to speak about the growing popularity of the clip – Col Smedley had already taken off on a well-deserved break.

And as the clip continues to gather as much momentum as the 165 falling pavers, the rest of them are taking off on some leave too.