Excavations at the northern end of the site
While the survivors of the Sydney Cove spent up to 12 months on Preservation Island little archaeological work was carried out on the land site until quite recently. In November 2002 a team from the Parks and Wildlife Service and Flinders University, Adelaide, relocated the site with the help of an original chart drawn by Lieutenant Matthew Flinders. A scatter of surface material and a large number of ‘hits’ from a metal detector confirmed the existence of the camp located on a high point overlooking the wreck and cargo storage area.
A total of seven squares measuring 2m x 2m were subsequently excavated to a relatively shallow depth. These revealed many items that had previously been located on the wreck site, including earthenware ceramics and porcelain, glass
bottles and other cargo items. Of particular interest was the recovery of a very large collection of animal and bird bones giving a useful insight into the crew’s diet. The bones were mostly from the short tailed shearwater or ‘mutton bird’ that bred upon the island in large numbers. The crew were also eating other wildlife such as wallabies and wombats as well as using some of the salted meat carried as cargo.
Archaeologist recording the remnants
of a brick hearth
Evidence was also found of the actual dwelling itself in the form of two upright posts made from ship’s timbers, and the remains of a brick hearth. The hearth had been constructed with bricks removed from the ship’s galley stove. Other parts of the ship such as iron fastenings and copper alloy sheathing tacks had also been used in the construction of the dwelling. Although there is historical evidence that survivor’s camps were built after a number of early shipwreck disasters there has been very little research done on the subject. The work on the Sydney Cove land site has helped to develop an archaeological model for survivor’s camps that might usefully be applied to other sites.
Further Information
Nash, M., 2005. Investigation of a survivor camp from the Sydney Cove shipwreck. Bulletin of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, 29: 9-24. Download as PDF [3.6MB].