Mr de Bres joins Harrietville Chinese mining village excavation

 Recently I participated in Season 3 of a Chinese mining village excavation in Harrietville, Victoria. The dig was organised by The Uncovered Past Institute, an Australia-based not-for-profit organisation that conducts archaeological excavations on historic sites with public participation. 

For around fifty years from the early 1860s Harrietville was home to many of the thousands of Victoria’s Chinese gold miners. They built extensive gold mining infrastructure, huts, communal kitchens and dray tracks in the 19th century Chinese mining village, situated below Mt Feathertop in the picturesque Upper Ovens Valley in northeast Victoria. 

The following site description comes from The Uncovered Past Institute’s website: 

 “The largely undisturbed site includes mine workings, water races, building foundations, and gardens: a rare survivor of the heyday of Chinese gold mining in Victoria. The foundations of at least 19 buildings were discovered during a survey undertaken during Season One fieldwork in 2017. Huge quantities of food, liquor, medicines, utensils, ceramics and even coins were imported from China for the Chinese mining communities. Many fragments of these were discovered during the first two excavation seasons in 2017 and 2019, along with fragments of European tableware ceramics and glass bottles.” 

During the week-long program I participated in field work, site surveying, feature plan drawing and artefact processing. I attended presentations on Chinese ceramics, the importance of context of artefacts and the heritage significance of numerous local goldmining enterprises. I was also given a guided tour of The Harrietville Museum and other significant archaeological sites in the area. 

One relatively new development in archaeology I learned more about was digital photogrammetry which was used to create digital 3D models of a double fronted fireplace at the dig site, using an iPhone app, fit for purpose. 

I look forward to sharing the knowledge I have gained from attending Season 3 of the Harrietville Chinese mining village excavation with interested students in my History classes in the coming weeks.

John de Bres 

History Teacher