Latitude Heritage was engaged by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery to complete archaeological monitoring of works to install steel structural supports to stabilize the Watergate Wall following damage to the wall in 2018 as a result of extreme weather events. Monitoring was completed to satisfy the conditions of a permit issued under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act 1995 (TAS).
Monitoring works provided evidence of vaulted storerooms built between 1823 and 1826 during construction of the Bond Store, later demolished and left beneath the ground surface of the Bond Store courtyard. Two vaulted storerooms were excavated into an escarpment that formerly extended across the Hobart waterfront, the same landform being site to some of the town’s earliest colonial settlement. The storerooms were constructed on sandstone foundations with twin brick-arched roofs, measuring a combined 12m long and 13m wide.
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A series of brick wall footings related to a mid-nineteenth-century outbuilding was also excavated and recorded during monitoring. The brick wall alignment created four small internal spaces identified, possibly cesspits or privies used by staff at the Customs Bonding House. Demolition deposits within the brick wall footings included large quantities of roof slate, suggesting that the long, linear outbuilding abutting the Watergate Wall featured a slate roof. Fragments of mud and lime render with a coat of beige-coloured milk or chalk paint provide evidence of more of the materiality of this outbuilding. The outer wall of the Bond Store facing the courtyard still bears marks of the building’s former roofline, providing a glimpse of its height and profile.
Services provided:
- Archaeological monitoring
- Artefact cataloguing and analysis
- Post-excavation reporting
Latitude Heritage acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands in which we work, the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung in Naarm/Melbourne, VIC and the palawa/pakana in Lutruwita/Tasmania. We pay our respects to Elders past and present, extending these respects to all First Nations groups whose land and waters on which we work. We recognise their continued connection to Country and acknowledge that they never ceded sovereignty.