Day 3, Archaeology of Queen’s Park Conservatory

The aspect of the site that featured in our efforts today was located at the eastern end of the building (the back), where as the historic photographs indicate, there was a chimney stack. This was borne out in our excavations, through the presence of a large amount of coal and cinder. Yesterday, we thought we may have found the extent of the feature, but our excavation down through the top layers saw the chimney area expand (and expend!) As you can see in the photographs, we came down on more bricks and then a bottle, shown here embedded in the wall. 

  
(Here’s a detail):

  
After a solid couple of hour’s work, we had cut back into the deposit and exposed the rest of the bottle and the extent of the chimney feature. The inscription on the bottle reads Brisbane Bottle Exchange (from 1910) and it is a machine-made rather than a hand made bottle. It’s placement in the chimney is more likely to be associated with the building’s demolition, rather than its construction. An interesting thing to is note that the placement of the bricks on the right is quite different to those on the left. It looks like (as Wendy Van Der Spoel pointed out) it was a toppled hearth wall rather than a series of bricks that were laid to a different pattern.

  
It was a productive day and the public were very generous with their recollections and old photographs. As always, thanks to our volunteers Wendy Van Der Spoel, William Rutherford, Leanne Bateman, Drew Rickard, Peter Stainton and Fred Santos. And to the little fellows below, who kept us entertained by swooping in at the merest hint of a grub. All I can say is I’m glad we are bigger than they.