RESEARCH REPORTS

2. REPORTS ON THE BURRA COMMUNITY ARCHAEOLOGY PROJECT: Burra Community Archaeology Project
by Claire Smith, Flinders University

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Burra Excavations, 2000 by Peter Birt, Flinders University The Burra Community Archaeology Project is a collaboration between university and industry bodies that has from its inception in 1998 brought both academic and community benefits. To date these benefits have included media exposure for the town, an exhibition in the local art gallery, two Honours theses and the beginning of my doctoral research, which has already seen the preliminary excavation used as a focus for tourism in the town.

Burra is 156 kms north of Adelaide in South Australia's mid-north and is a town of great historical importance in the State's European history. The town's importance lay in a copper mine that by the late 1840s was known as the 'Monster mine' because of its richness and with a large multicultural population. The most significant cultural group early on was the Cornish, but Welsh, Irish, assorted English and Scots made up a significant proportion of the population. These different groups can be given a generic 'British' label, but there is no doubt that each of these groups considered themselves culturally distinct and in most cases still do. Add to this mix a significant German minority, Chilean muleteers in the early 1850s, a few Chinese, at least one Swede and the Ngadjeri traditional owners and it is easy to see that the term multicultural well applies to early Burra. It is this multicultural history that forms the basis for my doctoral research into the archaeological manifestations of ethnic and cultural coexistence in colonial Australia.

Fortunately (at least for my research), Burra has not undergone major re-development since its halcyon mining days and many areas within the town remain relatively untouched. One of the most significant of these areas is the Burra Creek, where between 1846 and 1851 a large percentage of Burra's early European population made their homes by digging into the creek's banks. The collapsed remains of these dugouts have provided the initial focus for my fieldwork and allow access to evidence of the ordinary people living in early Burra.

Between April 15 and 21 2000, preliminary excavations were conducted at Mitchell Flat on the Burra Creek by a team of student volunteers from Flinders University under the direction of Dr Claire Smith and myself. The aims of this work were varied and included establishing whether or not the depressions in the creek's banks were indeed cultural features, to gain spatial and structural evidence and to gain evidence of Burra's early residents, especially in relation to ethnicity, class and gender. One of the smaller depressions was chosen and three trenches were excavated. The first trench was sited to attempt to reach the central living area, while the second was placed to try and locate the entry area and the third to find a side-wall and floor.

It was uncertain as to what would remain of these structures, as contemporary accounts generally described homes carved out of the clay, then whitewashed and with many having wooden lean-tos out front. As would be expected in a creek bank, flooding was the major hazard and eventually led to the abandonment and collapse of most dugouts. This description did not allow us much hope of any significant structure surviving, but we were to be pleasantly surprised.

Trench one did not get down far enough to reveal any structural evidence and the artefacts recovered were still consistent with surface deposits half a metre down. Trench two on the other hand contained plentiful traces of lime mortar, including in situ wall and substantial remains of a mortared floor, while trench three contained either the mortared remains of a wall end or alcove. There was little material culture found at levels consistent with occupational levels, but the structural and spatial information is valuable.

It is too early to speculate about the results, as this was only the preliminary stage of what is an ongoing project andthe cataloguing and analysis is still being done. Nevertheless, two major aims were achieved, proving that these depressions were not natural and finding at least some basic structural and spatial information. It is anticipated that the lack of other material culture will be addressed in the next stage, when the first trenches will be extended into the now identified living areas. We now also have a much better idea of how to approach these unusual features and future work should be better able to targetlikely areas, minimizing the disturbance to the site and maximizing the information recovered.