Harrietville Chinese Mining Village
Archaeological Excavation
SEASON 2 : 30 September - 26 October 2019
Dig Update
Excavation recommences at building site WC1 (photo: Paul Macgregor)
In October 2019, The Uncovered Past Institute conducted a second season of excavation of the 19th century Chinese gold-mining village, in the Alpine National Park, in the Upper Ovens Valley, in northeast Victoria, Australia, near the town of Harrietville. The first season of excavation took place in October 2017.
The Season Two excavation took place over 4 weeks from 30 September to 26 October 2019, and was carried out by a team of eight specialists working with 29 members of the public from around Australia, as well as New Zealand and Malaysia. The public participants funded the excavation by paying to take part in the excavation, which included being trained in basic archaeological and cataloguing techniques.
If you’d like to take part in out next excavation at Harrietville in October 2020, check the Season Three page for details, or ask to be on our email list.
Excavating along the northern side of building site SF1 (photo: Geoff Hewitt)
The village, occupied from circa 1860 until at least 1909, occupies a number of benched levels created by the inhabitants, on sloping ground, 100 metres wide at its widest point, that follows the south bank of the East Branch of the Ovens River, for about 700 metres.
Since being abandoned more than 100 years ago, it had become heavily overgrown, with only remnant traces of foundation stones occasionally visible under the vegetation.
Transverse section of village water race (photo: James Donlon)
Laying out the excavation lines at CK site (photo: Paul Macgregor)
Four sites in the village were excavated in the second season. Two building sites that we partially excavated in 2017 were excavated further - a building designated as WC1 (West Camp 1) in the western end of the village, and another we called SF1 (Stone Feature 1). We returned too, to the village water race, and excavated a transverse section of the race, to find out the profile of its construction. We also commenced excavation of a site (CK) which we thought may have been the communal kitchen, a building described in an 1884 article in The Argus newspaper.
Whet stone discovered at CK site, made from local stone (photo: Paul Macgregor)
4,193 archaeological fragments were discovered during the 2019 excavation. We retrieved 1,069 fragments of glass, 220 of Chinese ceramics and 18 of British and European ceramics. As with Season One, we found a large number of iron nails (704), and an even larger number (1,514) of fragments of iron sheet metal. These appear mostly to be pieces from flattened kerosene tins which had been used as roof cladding. We also found 163 other fragments of metal. Also identified were 162 pieces of animal bone.
The range of artefacts found in Season Two were in many ways similar to Season One. We have commenced cataloguing and so far have identified Chinese bowls, cups and ceramic spoons in plain wintergreen-style porcelain; ceramic stoneware jars that Chinese foods were bought in (such as pickles, preserved vegetables, soy sauce and oil) - mostly brown glaze, but also some green glaze; opium and tobacco pipes; European plates and cups; bottles for wine, beer and spirits; shards of window panes; eight buttons; and nine Chinese gaming tokens.
Brass strap from the lid of an opium tin (photo: Paul Macgregor)
This season we also found some types of items not found in Season One. These include 44 fragments of brass opium tins, a small glass Chinese medicine phial, a 1865 threepence coin, a frypan with holes in it, and a small rectangular slab of local stone that had been shaped to work as a whet stone for sharpening knives.
Cataloguing and detailed analysis of our finds from the 2019 excavation is still underway. As our analysis unfolds, more information will be provided from time to time on our blog, and also on Facebook and Twitter, so follow us on these for further updates on what we have found.
A full report on the 2019 excavation will be completed later in 2020, and we are currently planning a third season of excavations on the site, to be held in October 2021.
Our team of specialists and dig-participants were delighted with the community support from Harrietville and across the Upper Ovens Valley during the excavation. We’d particularly like to thank the Harrietville Historical Society, the Harrietville Hall Committee, and the Harrietville Community Forum for their assistance with research, facilities, and spreading enthusiasm for the dig.
We also greatly appreciated the warm hospitality of the various accommodation providers, cafes, caterers and hotels in the town who provided places for us to stay, food to eat, drinks to drink and nice places in which to relax after each day’s work.
Two fragments of Chinese storage jar, found on surface at CK site (photo: Paul Macgregor)
Iron frypan found on surface at WC1 site - reason for the holes still to be determined (photo: Paul Macgregor)
Overview of trenches excavated at SF1 site, halfway through Season 2 (photo: Geoff Hewitt)