Unearthing Complex Urban Landscapes in Colonial Australia: The Parramatta Light Rail Project

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Historical Archaeology of Cities: Unearthing Complexity in Urban Landscapes", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

In 2020, a series of excavations by Sydney-based consultants GML Heritage followed the route of a new light railway system cutting its way through Parramatta: the second oldest city in British-occupied Australia. These works revealed a series of sites comprising military barracks, a commercial wharf, an undocumented cottage, a vineyard and homestead, among many others. Individually, these revealed material ‘snapshots’ of life from the first decades of the colony of New South Wales when naval officers marked and repaired their scant goods; the 1840s depression bankruptcy forced a clergyman’s daughter to sell up; and the late-19th century when institutions and enterprise took over. Collectively they reveal the transformation of a military town to a thriving commercial centre. This paper will share some of the highlights from this important project and reflect on challenges of analysing and interpreting complex urban landscapes within the constraints of state-sponsored infrastructure projects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023   •
• Historical Archaeology of Cities: Unearthing Complexity in Urban Landscapes

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow