102 Australian Geographic
CAM COPE; OPPOSITE: AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM/TPWSarchaeologist with Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service, unearthed
the remains of a structure built by the Sydney Cove survivors.
The ship itself was discovered by Tasmanian divers on New
Year’s Day 1977. Three months later, the wreck and surrounding
area were declared a historic site under the Tasmanian National
Parks and Wildlife Act. Mike directed a regular program of exca-
vation of the wreck between 1991 and 1994.
“By the end of the project, five expeditions had uncovered
95sq.m of timber structure, four iron cannons, three anchors, and
artefacts ranging from leather footwear and animal bones to
approximately 850 bottles and more than 50,000 fragments of
porcelain,” he says. “The wreck is still in good condition. The
Sydney Cove was constructed from teak, so it’s solid.”
But funding restrictions at the time meant that his team was
not then able to investigate land sites, Mike adds. “Interest in
undertaking additional work was prompted by a 2001 project by
the Mitchell Library in Sydney, aiming to electronically publish
a number of maps and documents associated with the navigator
Matthew Flinders.”
A chart produced by Flinders in 1798 (see page 94) clearly
shows the position of the campsite and house established by
Sydney Cove’s crew. With funding through the Historic Shipwrecks
Program and assistance from Adelaide’s Flinders University, the
site was excavated over nine days in 2002.
W
E STEP GINGERLY across tussock-covered rises to the
site of the camp, 150m from the beach, wary of
disturbing tiger and copperhead snakes. We’re here
during the annual muttonbird season, when some 18 million
short-tailed shearwaters arrive in Tasmania to breed in more than
200 colonies. Breeding from September to April, they make
an annual round trip of about 30,000km between the Arctic
and south-eastern Australia.
During the harvesting season in April, birders reach into
burrows for chicks. Wayne demonstrates how it’s done, pulling a
fluffy grey chick from a burrow. He says Sydney Cove survivors,
led by Captain Hamilton, would have likely added muttonbirds
to their menu, just as Furneaux Islanders do today. A quantity of
charcoal was found at the site, and excavated animal bones showed
evidence of burning.
From the same site Mike’s team uncovered pieces of glass
bottles, ceramics, metal fastenings, earthenware, the remains of
upright timber posts, and a brick hearth. “More than 1000 ships
are known to have been lost in Tasmanian waters. But the Sydney
Cove is by far the most important in relation to the artefacts
uncovered,” Mike says.
Further excavation of the site in 2006 revealed additional sim-
ilar artefacts, as well as scattered bricks that indicated that the
hearth had been large. There are also several stone cairns on the
island that Mike believes may have been used to attempt to signal
any approaching vessels.
Back at the beach, silent save for the squawking of seagulls, I
watch a mob of pelicans clustered on Rum Island, an islet a few
hundred metres away over the placid waters. Goods originally
rescued from the ship were landed on the beach, says Mike, but
after the crew was found to be (perhaps quite understandably)
breaking into the casks of alcohol, most of the spirits were trans-
ferred to Rum Island, which derived its name from the cargo.
While survivors huddled on Preservation Island, 800km north
at Port Jackson, hurried plans were being made for their rescue.The wreck and
surrounding
area were
declared a
historic site.
̃
Jon Addison, history curator at the
Queen Victoria Museum, discusses
bottles, and other items in the
museum’s collection, that were
recovered from the shipwreck by
archaeologist Mike Nash (right).