On the 29th August 2009 members of the University of Newcastle’s Coal River Working Party were invited to inspect the archaeological dig being undertaken on the site of the former Palais Royale (now KFC) site in Newcastle West.
This is the second visit to to the site to speak with archaeologist Matthew Kelly (AHMS) who was overseeing the investigation of the colonial history of the site. The previous day was spent with archaeologist Alan Williams inspecting the Aboriginal heritage finds.
Lycett painting of Newcastle circa 1817 showing former Palais site at far right. Courtesy of Newcastle Art Gallery (Photograph by Bruce Turnbull)
An early representation of the site can be found on this painting by Joseph Lycett, held in the Newcastle Gallery entitled “Newcastle, New South Wales, looking towards Prospect Hill.” circa 1816-1817. It appears as a small white dot at the right edge of the painting.
In the video topics discussed were:
1. the high research value of high resolution historic images being placed online by the University in the form of the Ralph Snowball images,
2. the discussion of ‘Trench 4′ the site of the Commandant’s Cottage circa 1810 on the site of the Government Farm,
3. McLellan Hellyer and Co. Ironmongers store destroyed by fire in 1890 see Image here
4. Aboriginal site, hearths and ancient dune system approximate dating (at the time of filming) to the Holocene 10,000 years and younger,
5. Dangar’s Meat Preserving Works 1848-c1854,
6. Demolition work undertaken on the former Palais Royale and subsequent damage to the site.
We are very interested in learning more of the colonial heritage of the site that involves the clearing of the land in the 1790s, the establishment of the Government Cottage and farm (c.1810), Henry Dangar’s Meat Preserving Works 1848-c1854, the Elite Skating Rink, McLellan Hellyer & Co., leading up to the Palais Royale.
Despite requests we are yet to see the second report of the archaeological dig encompassing the colonial history from this important site in Newcastle.
Gionni Di Gravio
Chair, CRWP
For more info:
Click here for the first report on Aboriginal Heritage of the site (11.4MB PDF)
On the 30th September 2011 the NSW Minister for Heritage and the Environment, The Hon. Robyn Parker MP addressed the Hunter Heritage Network Seminar at the University of Newcastle (Australia).
The Minister was welcomed by Deputy Vice Chancellor Kevin McConkey and Mr Greg Anderson, Manager University Libraries.
The Minister for Heritage Robyn Parker addressed the Network about her vision for heritage. In particular, Minister Parker is concerned about the current protections for Aboriginal heritage and has initiated the current review process in seeking to address this.
The Network welcomed the Minster’s commitment to improving heritage legislation and will be making a submission to the review of Aboriginal protections and the Environmental Planning and Assessment reforms.
The Minister was presented with a framed historic poster of the Duckenfield farms area, where she lives. The plan is part of the University’s Cultural Collections treasures and can be seen in high resolution here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uon/5907232177/
On the same day, Mr Alan Williams (AHMS) addressed the Hunter Heritage Network Seminar at the University of Newcastle (Australia), and spoke about his work on the archaeological dig at the former Palais Royale/now KFC site in Newcastle West (Australia).
On the 23 June 2011 a successful motion and order for papers by Greens MP David Shoebridge passed in the NSW Upper House. The Coal River Working Party were invited to view those papers on the 17 July 2011, and a delegation consisting of ten members traveled to the NSW Parliament to view them and suggest recommendations. Please see our briefing to the NSW Parliament on our thoughts on what we think needs to change.
University of Newcastle Coal River Working Party – 19/7/11
KFC Development – Aboriginal Heritage Review
Respect for Culture. There needs to be a greater respect for Aboriginal heritage and culture within Australia, through ongoing education and public information. At present, even though there are laws to protect Aboriginal heritage, there is scant regard for them and they can be circumvented within the development approval process, as was clearly demonstrated in the KFC development.
Evidence. It is impossible to write history without documentary records, and equally important that it is verified and corroborated by surviving physical evidence. Without documentary and physical evidence you don’t have a case in a court of law, and neither do you have a case for a culture, without evidence all you have are unsubstantiated stories. So, it is crucial that:
1. archaeological reports are made and completed,
2. are of the highest scientific standards,
3. are open to public scrutiny, and
4. are publically accessible for ongoing research.
The Law. Aboriginal heritage continues to be managed through the National Parks and Wildlife Act, which predominantly focuses on flora and fauna legislation. It is essential that a separate Act that primarily deals with Aboriginal heritage be developed, which many other States already have in place.
Terminology. It may be helpful to avoid the separation of histories as ‘Aboriginal’ and ‘Colonial’, and referring to both as ‘Australian History’. This would avoid the 200 year myopic view of Australian history as a ‘young’ country only 200 years old, and begin to absorb a more comprehensive history dating back millions of years, including geological, pre-historic, indigenous and colonial.
Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit. The process of gaining an Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit (AHIP) to legally damage and destroy Aboriginal artifacts needs to be urgently reviewed. Currently, almost 100% of AHIP applications are approved by the NSW government, many of which have been issued to other State Government departments, such as the previously known DECCW (1) . Legislation should focus on what the developer should do with the important heritage site, such as interpretation, visual displays, avoiding or at the very least minimising impacts on Aboriginal cultural heritage and should not focus on the methods used to destroy heritage.
Heritage Reports. The creation of archaeological heritage reports needs to be a more transparent and independent process. At present, archaeologists are in the direct employment of the developers and are therefore placed in a difficult position, especially with the pressures from their employer to complete the job with minimal cost, rather than to thoroughly document the tangible evidence of past history on the site. In order to ensure the validity of results, archaeological reports should be created by an archaeologist(s) that are independent of the developer, and working under the aegis of the Government, such as the Department of the NSW Minister for Heritage.
All archaeological heritage reports, relating to Australian history (encompassing both European heritage and Aboriginal heritage), should be made available to the public via the public and University libraries. As it stands, completed reports are only available to the public at the decision of the developer. As such, most reports are not made accessible to the public and their validity cannot be publically scrutinised. What this means, in effect, is that our local history has been privatised, and we do not have access to our heritage.
For significant sites, such as this one, the resultant report from an archaeological heritage assessment must be made available before any development can commence. As evidenced with the KFC development, the Aboriginal archaeological report was released approximately 1-year after the KFC was built. At least 6,800 year old highly significant Aboriginal artifacts had already been destroyed by the time the report was released. It is imperative that it is a legislative requirement for all archaeological reports to be completed and released for viewing prior to the commencement of development. It is also imperative that archaeological investigations take place during the inactive period of a development site. An example is the current former Empire site, across the road from the KFC site which is currently lying fallow, with no development pressures – this is the time to conduct a thorough investigation.
Predictive Aboriginal Sites Map. It is vital that there is an early identification of Aboriginal heritage issues in the development planning process. There is currently no legislative requirement to identify Aboriginal heritage issues at the early stages of a development and therefore they are typically not mentioned by developers. It is important that funding be made available for local Council to prepare a predictive aboriginal sites map, to ensure that potentially important sites are identified and proper measures taken.
Indigenous Consultation. It is the view of the Awabakal Traditional Owners that, in this instance, they have been included within the consultation process with the Archaeologist Alan Williams, however they have not had much communication with the KFC site manager and/or the proponent regarding the proposed Aboriginal interpretation for the site. With this in mind, at the time of the excavation they did feel that their efforts to bring their concerns regarding the importance of the Aboriginal and Colonial Cultural Heritage contained within the site fell on deaf ears.
1. See Answers by the relevant Ministers representing the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, to Question on Notice Number 0127 (31 July 2007), Number 2091 (28 October 2008), Number 3009 (7 May 2009) and Number 3120 (17 June 2009), Legislative Council, asked by Ian Cohen MLC, as available to download at http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au.
(The University’s Coal River Working Party wishes to thank Melanie Patfield and Jane Ison who distilled the views of the participants and prepared the original drafts of this document. We also thank the ten participants that generously gave up their day to work on this matter.)
LOSS OF UNIQUE ABORIGINAL HERITAGE IN NEWCASTLE WEST
That this House notes that:
Approximately one year ago a fast food restaurant costing $2.5 million was built in Hunter Street, Newcastle West, over one of the most significant Aboriginal heritage sites in New South Wales.
The Excavation Report for this site was not released until one month ago, almost a year after the restaurant was built, thus making its assessment of the heritage impact of the development redundant.
The Excavation Report found the site to be of “high to exceptional cultural and scientific significance” and should have been available before the restaurant was built so as to justify retention of the site as a state significant site of Aboriginal cultural heritage.
The site contained a significant number of artefacts, including ancient Aboriginal stone tools with unique stonework and campsite remains, which are over 6,000 years old, evidence of some of the earliest human settlement in the Newcastle area.
The site also included a large array of colonial-era artefacts.
Under the previous government Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permits, effectively permits to destroy Aboriginal heritage sites, were given at the rate of approximately 5 per week.
Members of the local Awabakal people have stated that the final excavation report “highlighted the lack of rigour in the state government’s assessment of Aboriginal heritage”.
No acceptable plan has been made for the retention and display of these unique artefacts in the local region.
That this House:
Recognises the irreplaceable nature of this state’s Aboriginal heritage and the value of Aboriginal artefacts, and acknowledges the tragic loss of Aboriginal heritage that this development has created.
Calls on the government to review the failings in the current Aboriginal heritage protection regime and consider measures to ensure that a similar tragedy does not occur in the future.
ORDER FOR PAPERS PASSED UNANIMOUSLY IN NSW UPPER HOUSE
ORDER FOR PAPERS
That, under standing order 52, there be laid upon the table of the House within 14 days of the date of passing of this resolution all documents in the possession, custody or control of the Minister for Heritage and the Minister for the Environment, or the Department of Premier and Cabinet, relating to the development of the KFC restaurant at 227-231 Hunter Street, Newcastle, including the former Palais site, and any document which records or refers to the production of documents as a result of this order of the House.
Aunty Nola Hawken, Ann Hardy and archaeologist Alan Williams on the former Palais site in August 2009
In August 2009 we were very excited about the archaeological excavations being undertaken on the former Palais Royale site in Newcastle West.
We are proud to report that the first of two Reports have been released covering the Aboriginal history of the site. Over 5,534 Aboriginal artefacts were recovered, representing three Aboriginal occupation periods dating from 6,716-6,502 years BP (before present) and identified as a site of ‘high to exceptional cultural and scientific significance’.
We wish to thank everyone involved with this Project for the production of this wonderful report. We hope it will assist the wider community to fully comprehend the depth of history that lies beneath our feet, and the importance for that history to be understood, respected and safeguarded for future generations.
‘Community is poorer for burying its history’
by Gionni Di Gravio
Newcastle Herald 24 May 2011 p.11
A couple of years ago I was very excited to visit the archaeological dig at at the former Palais.
Back in 1825 this was the place (the then ‘Government Farm’) where the Rev. Lancelot Threlkeld spent his first year in Newcastle. Within days of his arrival on 8th May 1825, Threlkeld and his young family had been robbed three times, and fearful of being robbed every night.
So you can imagine his relief when on the Wednesday evening of the 11 May 1825, he was eventually given a civilised welcome as the natives assembled around his house to cook up a kangaroo. After they had eaten, the Threlkelds were invited to see their dance. Threlkeld noted that when “they had concluded they thanked us for our visit and wished us good night.”
It was here that he heard the local dreaming stories, would witness healing rituals and a burial, and document numerous atrocities perpetrated against the local Aboriginal people.
It was here that he, and one of those natives, Biraban (or McGill), began a collaborative study into the local language, the first methodical study of an Aboriginal language anywhere in this country.
So it was thrilling to see a scientific report released this month 186 years after these events.
One small rectangular sample trench yielded over 5,500 artefacts, representing three waves of Aboriginal occupations dating from 6,700 years. The archaeologists stopped digging 2 metres down, concluding the deeper they went, the more they would find that dated even further back deep into time. The upper strata of the dig represented the last 1,933 years of Aboriginal occupation that unfortunately had been obliterated by 200 years of European occupation.
So why get excited over a pile of stone tools?
Firstly we are nothing without history. It documents our achievements and our failures, and enables us to understand who we are, so we can avoid mistakes in future. It is impossible to write history without documentary records, and equally important that it is verified and corroborated by surviving physical evidence.
Without documentary and physical evidence you don’t have a case in a court of law, and neither do you have a case for a culture, without evidence all you have are tall stories.
As it stands, with regards to developments there is no publically funded archaeological research. Historians and archaeologists are in the direct employ of the developers who pay for them. They investigate, document archaeological finds, create reports that remain the property of the developer.
Is it right that our history has been privatised? These reports should be made public, so we can learn more about our history.
Without history, our community suffers, and like a patient with dementia we are confused and fearful. There is unfinished business here, and the sooner re-examine our shared memory, the healthier we will be.
This Land and its Aboriginal people did not suddenly come into being when a European ‘discovered’ it 1770, and neither did they both become someone else’s possession once pen hit paper on a map and acquired it for the Crown.
Threlkeld and his family were welcomed here with a barbeque and a dance, and the tradition would continue right up until the last days of Palais Royale where many people met and later married after dancing at that very spot.
We need to ask ourselves how different would we feel if these ‘rocks’ had instead been WW1 relics?
It was very fortunate for us, that on the 10 June 2008 such a discovery of rising sun collar badges was made in one of the burial pits during the excavation at Fromelles, in France.
The landowner, Madame Marie Paule Demassiet, not only allowed the archaeological dig on her private property, she gifted the land for an ongoing memorial.
It was a wonderful gesture to see good-hearted people hold our heritage is such high regard.
It would be great if we could extend the same respect to Aboriginal people.
Community Reaction
Cartoon courtesy of Peter Lewis and the Newcastle Herald
'History Junked' by Matthew Kelly Newcastle Herald 21 May 2011 p.1
'6500-year-old heritage junked' Newcastle Herald 21 May 2011 p.7
Contains interview with Julie Baird from the Newcastle Regional Museum and Gionni Di Gravio from the University of Newcastle’s Coal River Working Party who discuss the historical significance of the find, and what should happen to the artifacts recovered.
An Archaeological report which reveals one of Australia’s largest take-away restaurants was built on a significant Aboriginal site highlights a lack of respect for Aboriginal heritage, according to a university-based historical record-keeper.
