Day 1

Today was the first day of excavation at the Naval Stores, Kangaroo Point. It was a cold morning in Brisbane and we were all rugged up for the 8:00am start. The crew consisted of: Jon Prangnell, Tam Smith, Kevin Rains, Alex Wisniowiecka, Griffith Young, Michelle Langley, Joanne Stewart, Anastasia Carter, Margaretha Vlahos and Julian Travaglia.

The first task of the day was to document the site before any digging could commence. Our excavation area measures 2.0 x 2.5m, and is situated next to the remaining foundations of Naval Stores 1. The area selected for excavation was overlain with a bitumen surface. Before this was removed, we had to set up our site datum, which is a fixed reference point from which all the measurements on the dig are taken. We also recorded the features of the site by drawing the area on our recording forms, and taking photographs. Keeping records of an excavation is very important, because as you dig you actually destroy the site as you go.

The method of excavation that we decided to employ is a "horizontal excavation", removing each excavation unit across the site, opening up the whole area at once. Our first excavation unit at the Naval Stores was the bitumen surface. After we had mapped out the dimensions of this first unit, the Brisbane City Council workers had to remove it. Using heavy machinery, the bitumen was cut into small squares and carefully taken off the surface, exposing our second excavation unit.

Our second excavation unit was a very compacted surface, probably put down before the bitumen was laid. It was a hard concrete-like matrix, pale yellow in color, and composed mostly of small-to-medium sized rocks. This surface was very hard to dig through, and the trowels were soon discarded in favour of small hand picks, which made the work somewhat easier. There were only a small number of artefacts recovered from the site today, and included some small pieces of glass (window pane and bottle), a bullet casing, and a small piece of metal.

Throughout the day there was a lot of interest from the public as they walked, cycled, and roller-bladed past the excavation on the Kangaroo Point Boardwalk. Many of them talked to us about what we were doing and were able to watch as we worked. We felt that it was a very productive day, as we excavated down about 25cm, and the crew worked very well together.

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