| ..'That corpse you planted last year in your garden, 'Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year? 'Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed? 'Oh keep the dog far hence, that's friend to men, 'Or with his nails he'll dig it up again! T.S.Elliot, The Burial of the Dead |
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| After graduation I was fortunate in gaining employment in the archaeology department at LaTrobe University for a number of years. I then worked in the Historic Places Branch at what was then the Department of Conservation, Forests and Lands which was later reconstructed. After taking a redundancy package from the government in 1992, I began working with a friend, Fiona Weaver, whom I met at university. Her consultancy Practical Archaeology Services is located at Geelong. As a consequence of the location we work mainly in the west and north of the state. Our clients are usually property developers, but we also work for government departments, local councils, mining companies, public utilities and private individuals. | Practical Archaeology Services can be located in the phone book or by email. Contact us for a complete archaeological survey of your proposed development and avoid heavy penalties. We did the consultancy for the old Customs house, now the Immigration Museum, in the City of Melbourne; the Cascades in Bendigo, Victoria, where we uncovered - as far as I can determine - the only cannon to be excavated in mainland Australia; and many surveys of aboriginal and Heritage sites prior to housing development proceeding. I have also worked with Sarah Myers where we recently excavated a shortly to be developed site in the 'Chinatown' section of Melbourne. Sarah can also be contacted through me. |
 The things one finds on a survey!!The stone tools were left at Pt.Cook by aborigines many, many years ago. The two month old pup, now named Blanik, was dumped there much more recently. He's the best thing I've ever found in archaeology. |  Excavation of 19th century toilets at the old Customs House in Melbourne.(1998) |
 Some of the artefacts from the old Customs House. A clay pipe, 'torpedo' bottle base and a pottery fragment. |  Fiona and me excavating at Black Rock House. (1985) |
An abandoned steam engine from an early 20th century mill in the Ash Forests of Victoria, Australia. There are many relics (winches, boilers, abandoned mills, timber trestle bridges, tramlines) still in the forests but they're slowly being destroyed by looters and extensive forestry.
Note the Mountain Ash immediately behind this engine. A tree this size would have taken two axeman about four hours to fell. These days 8 - 10 minutes would be more like it. And they say the 'greenies' cost forest jobs!!! Sadly, there aren't many this size left, probably even this one has now gone.
 More stone tools. This time at Broadmeadows. One of the blades at this site measured 2.75" long x 1.125" wide x 0.5" thick. Quite a large blade indeed. (1999) |
The Cascades, Bendigo, Victoria. The two cannon are from HMVS Nelson and are the only cannon excavated in mainland Australia. They are currently still lying unconserved, in an open shed at the Bendigo council depot. There were originally four at this site but the other two went into an abandoned mineshaft at the same time that these were buried here!!
 This is/was the Uniting Church in Nagambie. It was well over 100 years old and destroyed in one second.Churches are dangerous places!!!! In the lake to the left of the truck can be seem the remains of the last timber carting barges when the timber industry was economically important in Nagambie. |
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Last update March 2004.
