Melbourne Metro Tunnel archaeological dig could reveal treasure trove of city history

ARCHAEOLOGISTS hope that a CBD site linked to Melbourne pioneer John Batman will reveal a treasure trove of the city’s early history including a very significant cottage.

JOHN MASANAUSKASCITY EDITOR

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May 22, 2018 - 7:05PM

Time lapse of Metro Tunnel archeological digs

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ARCHAEOLOGISTS hope that a CBD site linked to Melbourne pioneer John Batman will reveal a treasure trove of the city’s early history.

Already, a dig next to Young and Jackson Hotel on Swanston St has uncovered items like antique bottles, coins, metal spoons, marbles and even human teeth.

The excavations were made possible when several buildings were demolished for work on the proposed Town Hall underground station as part of the $11 billion Metro Tunnel project.

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Swanston Street in 1875.

Senior archaeologist Cornelia de Rochefort with a section of the Herald newspaper stuck to stonework dating back to the early 1900s. Picture: David Caird

Batman paid 100 pounds for the land just two years after Melbourne was founded in 1835 and built a timber cottage that soon became the city’s first girls’ school.

Excavation director Meg Goulding from archaeological consultants Ochre Imprints said that a possible location of the structure had been identified but more digging was needed to find the footings and even original timber posts.

“If we find Batman’s cottage it would be very significant as finding something structural from the 1830s would be quite rare,” she said.

Another part of the site has yielded the remains of a doorway and fireplace, probably dating to the 1840s.

Archaeologists excavate in Melbourne’s CBD

Excavation director Meg Goulding holds a rare torpedo bottle popular in Melbourne in the early 1900s. Picture: David Caird

Heritage Victoria principal archaeologist Jeremy Smith said it appeared to have been a two-room cottage.

“The artefacts will tell us, was it a factory, was it a pub, a residence, a school potentially,” he said.

“That first generation of Melbourne’s history, the pioneers — this is where they’ve settled, this is what they’re doing in those very first years of the city’s settlement.”

The site changed dramatically during the Gold Rush with Batman’s school razed in 1853, and Young and Jackson, or Princes Bridge Hotel, opening in 1861.

Workers undertake the dig behind Young and Jackson. Picture: David Caird

Archaeologists have found a two room cottage. Picture: David Caird

Over the decades the rest of the land was variously used for warehouses and businesses including an iron monger, chocolatier and dentist.

More than 100 archaeologists, field workers and students will survey the site, as well as another Metro Tunnel site at La Trobe St, for several more weeks.

Viewing windows have been installed at both locations to allow the public to see the digs in action.

Transport Minister Jacinta Allan said that the northern CBD site dig had already produced thousands of items, including highly decorative pottery and clay tobacco pipes.

“The viewing windows will give locals and visitors the chance to get up close to the biggest archaeological digs in Victoria’s history and watch as treasures from Melbourne’s past are unearthed,” she said.