Education Dig, Warrnambool, April 2009
In April 29-30, we conducted an educational dig at a former 19th-century rubbish tip in Warrnambool.
This exercise gave more than 150 primary school students from Warrnambool West Primary and Port Fairy Consolidated the chance to ‘be an archaeologist for a day’.
Students from Warrnambool West Primary School on our Flickr photo site.
Students from Port Fairy Consolidated School on our Flickr photo site.
We also held a contest, organised by the Warrnambool Standard, where four winners could join the dig. The Standard received 20 very creative submissions stating in 25 words or less, why they wanted to be an archaeologist.
The winning submissions included an 8 year old who “wanted to be an archaeologist since he was six months old” and a 12 year old who said it would be the “best birthday present ever, even if it was a couple of days early”. Two submissions received by adults included a poem, and a paper dipped in coffee and burnt at the edges to look aged.
The students and contest winners learned how to work in a trench, how to sieve for artefacts, and how to clean and sort findings.
A range of interesting artefacts were uncovered including;
- locally made bottles
- thousands of other glass bottle fragments
- broken pieces of ceramics
- animal bones including a cow horn
- early Post-Master’s button
- piece of writing slate
- .303 bullet casing
A few significant items were brought back to our conservation lab in Melbourne, where steps can be taken to preserve the artefacts.
The two schools were given an assortment of the finds for display and possible future research projects.
While the dig was a fun learning experience, it came with a serious message - to increase awareness of historical archaeology and why it should be protected.
Archaeological remains are a physical reminder of our heritage, and of the people who shaped our landscape and towns.
The excavation is part of an outreach project funded through the whole of government heritage strategy, Victoria’s Heritage: strengthening our communities. The main aims of the outreach project are to provide archaeological advice to the Shires of Glenelg, Moyne, Southern Grampians and the City of Warrnambool, reassess local historical archaeology sites and raise community awareness of historical archaeology in South-West Victoria.