Susan Lawrence

Exporting Culture: Archaeology and the Nineteenth-Century British Empire

Comparison of Australia with other postcolonial nations provides a means for analyzing the material culture of 19th-century British colonization. Developments in Australia paralleled those in Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand. As a result of changes in politics, industry, knowledge, culture, and society, migrants at this time differed significantly from those of earlier periods of British colonization. Comparison between colonial outposts provides a means for better understanding this emerging culture of British imperialism. Rather than reflecting the adoption of archaic physical forms, this pattern drew on the many complex strands of class, industrialization, urbanization, and mass consumption that informed contemporary British society. A globally aware perspective on British culture raises new questions for archaeologists in the United States, Britain, and the countries of the former British Empire.

Ethnographies of place: a new urban research agenda.

How might one tap the idioms of vanished communities once local knowledge has faded? How might one chart the mental landscapes of locales that have been overlaid by other peoples understandings and whose material forms have been erased by urban redevelopment? This paper integrates history and archaeology as it attempts an ethnographic re-reading of one such precinct in Melbourne, Australia.

Melbourne's ‘little Lon'*

How might one tap the idiom of vanished communities, once local knowledge has faded? How might one chart the mental landscapes of locales that have been overlaid by other peoples understandings, and whose material forms have been erased by redevelopment? This paper integrates history and archaeology in order to reclaim the actualities of one city neighbourhood—Melbournes ‘Little Lon—from the distorting realities fashioned by outside perceptions.

Migration and Ethnicity

Australia began as a migrant society, with Indigenous Australians first arriving over sea and island from Southeast Asia almost 50,000 years ago. Modern Australia grew out of the arrival of convicts, settlers and soldiers from Britain, sent out to create a new colonial society. English, Scots and Irish dominated these next groups of immigrants, and continued to do so for generations to come. But there were other groups with other ethnic traditions who arrived in those early days as well, including West Indians and Pacific Islanders, all trying to build a life in a strange and difficult place. In later years, new groups included Germans, who settled in large numbers in South Australia and the Riverina, and Chinese, lured by the prospect of gold. The years after the Second World War brought hundreds of thousands of “New Australians” from war-ravaged Europe, thrown together in migrant reception camps to learn the rudiments of Australian identity and how they related to it. Today, Australia is home to hundreds of ethnic groups, including more recent arrivals from Turkey and Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan, Vietnam and Cambodia, each contributing to culture and society in numerous ways. In this chapter we explore a common theme in archaeology, the relationship between ethnic identities and wider society.

Sources of Meat in Colonial Diets: Faunal Evidence from Two Nineteenth Century Tasmanian Whaling Stations

Abstract The analysis of faunal assemblages from two nineteenth century Tasmanian whaling stations provides information about meat in colonial diets. The assemblages include a combination of native mammal, bird, and fish species and European domesticates. The presence of diverse native species indicates occasional opportunistic hunting rather than a significant incorporation of local fauna in the subsistence system. The bulk of meat consumed was beef, pork, and mutton. Element representation and documentary evidence suggests that while the pork was almost certainly salted, the beef was a combination of fresh and preserved meat, and the mutton was fresh meat prepared locally. This analysis has implications for understanding colonial herd development and provisioning systems for maritime industries.

Ploughzone archaeology on an Australian historic site: A case study from South Gippsland, Victoria

Abstract Archaeologists are often confronted with sites featuring post-occupation disturbance. At rural sites, this disturbance often comes in the form of agricultural activity, such as ploughing and grazing. These disturbances can call into question the value of site spatial relationships and broader data integrity. Between 2006 and 2007, archaeologists from La Trobe University and New Zealand-based consultancy firm Geometria carried out a programme of fieldwork at an 1841–1861 cottage in Gippsland, Victoria. The site is now an open grazing paddock that has been ploughed on several occasions in the past. The survey techniques used by the archaeological team, which included geomagnetic survey and artefact surface scatter mapping, allowed for testing the integrity of the ploughed archaeological deposits prior to excavation, and provide a case study for the applicability of ploughzone archaeology techniques to Australian historic sites.

Learning about landscape: Archaeology of water management in colonial Victoria

Abstract Landscape learning provides a model for examining how colonists in Australia came to terms with the landscape, positioning the environment at the centre of investigations into settler activity. The successful management of water was crucial in the colonising process, and settlers rapidly developed a sharp awareness of climate, soils and topography in their manipulation of environmental resources. Upon learning about climatic variability they built dams, races, reservoirs and other features to capture, store and divert water, which have left extensive archaeological traces. This paper explores the archaeological remains associated with water use on the goldfields of Victorias central highlands, and the ways in which settlers learned the possibilities and limitations of natural landscapes.

Cornish tin-streamers and the Australian gold rush: technology transfer in alluvial mining

Abstract The Cornish are known around the world for their mining skills. In the 19th century the migration of Cornish mining families created a diasporic community with settlements in the United States, Mexico, South Africa and Australia centred on copper, tin and gold mines. While the Cornish are generally associated with underground mining, recent research in Australia suggests that ancient methods for working surface tin deposits played an important role during the gold rush. The identification of Cornish tin-streaming as the source of alluvial mining technology in Australia sheds light on a little-documented branch of mining that has played a significant role in shaping the landscape of goldfields regions. RÉSUMÉ Les mineurs d’étain en alluvion cornouaillais et la ruée vers l’or australienne: transfert de technologie dans l’exploitation minière alluviale Les Cornouaillais sont connus dans le monde entier pour leurs compétences minières. Au XIXe siècle, la migration de familles minières de Cornwall a engendré une communauté diasporique, avec des implantations aux Etats-Unis, au Mexique, en Afrique du Sud et en Australie, centrées sur les mines de cuivre, d’étain et d’or. Bien que les Cornouaillais soient généralement associés à l’exploitation de mines souterraines, de récentes recherches en Australie suggèrent que les méthodes anciennes pour extraire l’étain des dépôts de surface ont joué un rôle important dans la ruée vers l’or. L’identification de l’exploitation d’étain en alluvion cornouaillais comme source de technologie minière en alluvion en Australie éclaire une branche peu documentée de l’exploitation minière qui a joué un rôle important dans le modelage du paysage des régions des terrains aurifères. ZUSAMMENFASSUNG Cornische Zinn-Bandlaufwerke im australischen Gold-Rausch: technologische Übertragung in alluvialen Bergbau Die Männer aus Cornwall sind rund um die Welt bekannt für ihre Bergbau-techniken. Im 19. Jahrhundert gründeten die aus Cornwall ausgewanderten Bergbaufamilien Diaspora-Kommunen in den USA, Mexiko, Süd-Afrika und Australien, die sich um Kupfer, Zinn und Gold Minen gruppierten. Während die Cornwaller generell in unterirdischen Minen arbeiteten, hat jüngste Forschung in Australien festgestellt, daß alte Methoden der Oberflächenschürfung eine wichtige Rolle während des Goldrausches spielten. Die Feststellung, daß Cornwall-Bandlaufwerke die Quelle der alluvialen Oberflächenschürftechnik waren, erhellt den wenig dokumentierten Zweig des Bergbaus, der eine bedeutende Rolle in der Formung der Landschaft in Goldfelder-Regionen spielte. RIASSUNTO L’estrazione di stagno in Cornovaglia e la corsa all’oro australiana: trasmissione di tecnologie nell’estrazione alluvionale Gli abitanti della Cornovaglia sono noti in tutto il mondo per le loro abilità di estrattori. Nel XIX secolo la migrazione di famiglie dedite a quest’attività dalla Cornovaglia creò una comunità in diaspora, con insediamenti negli Stati Uniti, in Messico, in Sudafrica e in Australia, che si dedicò alle miniere di rame, stagno e oro. Sebbene i lavoratori originari della Cornovaglia siano generalmente associati all’attività mineraria sottoterra, una ricerca australiana suggerisce che gli antichi metodi di coltivazione dei depositi di stagno in superficie ebbero un ruolo importante durante la corsa all’oro. L’identificazione della tecnica di coltivazione dello stagno propria della Cornovaglia alla base della tecnologia estrattiva alluvionale in Australia, illumina un settore poco conosciuto dell’estrazione mineraria che ha giocato un ruolo importante nel dare forma al paesaggio delle regioni con giacimenti auriferi. RESUMEN El estaño cornuallés y la fiebre del oro australiana: la transferencia de tecnología en la minería alluvial Los habitantes de Cornualles son famosos en todo el mundo por sus habilidades mineras. En el siglo XIX la emigración de las familias mineras creó una comunidad en diáspora con asentamientos en los Estados Unidos, Méjico, Sudáfrica y Australia, en las minas de cobre, estaño y oro. Mientras que los de Cornualles están generalmente asociados con la minería subterránea, estudios recientes en Australia sugieren que los métodos antiguos para trabajar en superficie los yacimientos de estaño jugaron un papel importante durante la fiebre del oro. La identificación del trabajo del estaño de Cornualles como la fuente de la tecnología de la minería aluvial en Australia arroja luz sobre una rama poco documentada de la minería, que ha jugado un papel importante en la configuración del paisaje de las regiones con campos de oro.

The Parsonage of the Reverend Willoughby Bean: Church, State, and Frontier Settlement in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Australia

Fieldwork undertaken at the mid-19th-century residence, or “parsonage,” of the Reverend Willoughby Bean in Gippsland, Australia, provides new insight into the impact of the intertwined roles of church and state on the frontier of settlement of 19th-century colonial Australia. The extensive material culture recovered from the Bean site demonstrates a striving towards a status commensurate with Bean’s social standing as the sole local representative of a state church of the governing colonial power. Paradoxically, the very need to maintain materially his social role as a representative of the Anglican Church may have been one of the primary contributors towards the eventual financial failure of the Bean household.

The Archaeology of Anthropocene Rivers: Water Management and Landscape Change in 'Gold Rush' Australia

Abstract Future scientists seeking evidence of the Anthropocene on a planetary scale will find a series of structurally similar deposits dating to within the same few thousand years at multiple locations around the world. It will be evident that they were produced by a global human drive to exploit the Earths mineral wealth. The impact and the evidence left by this phenomenon in the ‘Gold Rush’ region of Victoria, Australia are particularly clear. Using a multi-scalar approach, the authors examine the extent and significance of changes resulting from water management and mining processes, which, in some cases, resulted in the creation of new landscapes far beyond the mining district.