Austral/Godden Mackay Archaeological Investigation POW Project 1995 Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery-Volume 1, Main Report

Prepared for the South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service, Heritage Council of NSW and the NSW Department of Health, December 1997 : The POW Project 1995 Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery Archaeological Investigation is presented in the following components:

Volume One: Main Report Synopsis Introduction History Statement of Significance Policy Synthesis Research Design Interpretation Guidelines Report Format References

Volume Two: Archaeology

Volume Three: Physical Anthropology

Volume Four: Drawings

This document is Volume One being the Main Report

-- Austral/Godden Mackay

_Contents Page

Synopsis ••.•••..••••••••••••••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••..•••••••••••...••.•••••••••••.•....•.•••••••••••...... •.••••••••• i 1.0 Introduction 1 1.1 Preamble 1 1.2 The Site 1 1.2. 1 Location 1 1.2.2 Physical Setting ~~ :.: 6 1.3 Background to the Excavation : 6 1.4 The Project Brief 8 1.5 Approach 9 1.5. 1 Approval 9 1.5.2 Research Program ' 9 1.5.3 Preparations and Consultation 11 1.5.4 On Site Investigation 11 1.5.5 Post-excavation Analysis 12 1.6 Author Identification and Acknowledgements 13 1.7 Endnotes 15 2.0 Historical Ovel'V'iew ...•••...... ••..••••••.•••••••••••....••••••••••••••..•••••••••••..••••••••••••••..••••..•....•••••17 2.1 The Need for the Asylum 17 2.2 Period 1: Paddington 1852-1858 18 2.3Period Two: Randwick and the 1860s : 20 2.4 Diet 21 2.5 Work Within the Asylum 21 2.5.1 Apprenticeship 24 2.6 Period Three: Change and Decline 24 2.6.1 Boarding Out. 24 2.7 The Closing of the Asylum 25 2.8 The Site for the New Asylum 25 2.9 The Asylum Grounds 26 2.9.1 1917- Rubbish in the Grounds 27 2.10 Number of Deaths 27 2.11 The Cemetery 27 2.11.1 Discovery ofthe Cemetery 32 2.12 The Military Hospital 34 2.13 Coast Hospital Auxiliary Randwick 34 2.14 Later Activity 34 2.15 Epigraph ~ 35 2.15.1 Attitudes to Poverty 35 2.15.2 A Moralisation ofPoverty 37 2.15.3 Attitudes in the New Colony 38 2.15.4 The Exclusion ofthe Undeserving Poor : 38 2.15.5 The Care of Children in the Colony 39 2.15.6 Children on the Streets 39 Austral/Godden Mackay

2.15.7 The Philanthrop;sts 41 2.15.8 Fund;ng for the Asylum 41 2.15.9 The InsUtuUon 41 2.15. 10 The Children ;n the Asylum .41 2.15.11 C;rcumstance of the Parents .42 2. 15. 12 Who Were the Children? .42 2.15.13 Children from the Country .44 2.15.14 A Healthy Envkonment 44 2.15.15 Poverty and Pdde 44 2.15.16 The Treatment ofthe Children .44 2.15.17 Other InsUtuUons for Children. .46 2.15.18 The System ofBoard;ng-Out.. .46 2.15.19 Care for the Children ofthe Respectable .48 2. 15.20 Econom;c Factors ;n the Change .48 2.15.21 A Change ofMetaphor 48 2.16 Historical Research 49 2.16.1 The Cemetery 49 2.16.2 Children 50 2.16.3 Cof(;n Matedals 50 2.16.4 The Asylum 51 2.16.5 The Sne After the Closure ofthe Asylum 51 2.16.6 Arch;ves and Ubrades Consulted 52 2.16.7 Research 52 2.17 The Asylum 52 2.18 The Cemetery 53 2.19 The Philosophy Underlying the Asylum 53 2.20 Historical Research 54 2.21 Endnotes 59 3.0 Significance 63 3.1 Preamble 63 3.2 1995 Statement of Significance 63 3.3 1995 Assessment - Contextual Discussion 64 3.3.1 H;stodc Assoc;aUon 64 3.3.2 AestheUc QuaHUes 65 3.3.3 Soc;al S;gn;(;cance 65 3.3.4 Sc;entmc Research PotenUal 66 3.3.5 Other Values 67 3.3.6 Rarny 68 3.3.7 RepresentaUveness 68 3.4 1995 Application of Criteria 69 3.4.1 Preamble 69 3.4.2 EvoluUon and Assoc;aUon (H;stor;c) 69 3.4.3 Creat~ve and Techn;cal AccompHshment (AestheUc) 70 3.4.4 Comrhunny Esteem (Soc;al) 70 3.4.5 Research PotenUal (Sc;entmc) 71 3.4.6 Other 72 Austral/Godden Mackay

3.4.7 Rarity 72 3.4.8 Representativeness 73 3.5 Effect of Archaeological Excavation on Significance 74 3.6 Endnotes 74

4.0 Consel'V'ation Policy•••••••••••••••••••••••••.••••.•••••••••••••.••••••••••••.••••••••..•.•••••..••••••••.••••JI ••••••••••••75 4.1 Preamble ,..:. 75 4.2 Philosophical Statement , 75 4.3 Implementation Policies , 75 4.3.1 Essential Background Research Excavation is Undertaken 75 4.3.2 Excavation -.: 76 4.3.3 Recording and/or data collection during andafter excavation 76 4.3.4 Conservation"and Housing 77 4.3.5 Involvement ofSpecial Interest Groups 78 4.3.6 Media Management and Photographs 78 4.3.7 Development 79 4.3.8 Re-interment ofHuman Remains 79 4.3.9 Interpretation , 79 ,"4.3. 10 Use ofData and Records from the Site 80 4.3.11 Site Management During Excavation. 80 4.3.12 Integration into Precinct Conservation Plan 81 , '--4.3.13 Compliance with Acis , 81 5.0 Archaeology of the Cemetery ••••••••••••••••.•.•••••••.••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.•....•••••••••••••••••.•••••• 83 5.1 Introduction 83 5.2 The Burial Ground , 83 5:3 The Grave 86 5.4 The Burial Container 89 5.5 The Body 91 5.6 Grave Goods 92 5.7 Osteological Studies 94 5.8 Endnotes 96 6.0 Research Design••••••••••••••••••••••••.•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.•••••••••••••••••••..••••••••••••••••••••••••• 97 6.1 Initial 97 6.1.1 Research Design 97 6.2 Amended Research Design 97 6.3 Response to Research Questions 97 6.3.1 Osteology 98 6.3.2 Social History 98 6.3.3 Prehistory 104 6.3.4 Contemporary Aboriginal Interests 105 6.3.5 Techniques 106 7.0 Interpretation Guidelines •••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••.•••••••.••••••••••••••••••••••..•.••.••••••••••••••••••••••••• 111 7.1 General 111 7.2 Messages : 111 7.3 Information 111 7.3.1 On Site 111 Austral/Gadden Mackay

7.3.2 At the Asylum BUildings 111 7.3.3 Off Site/Other Locations 112 7.4 Design Parameters 112 7.4.1 Concepts 112 7.4.2 Form and Scale 112 7.4.3 Materials 112 7.4.4 Plantings 114 7.5 Access 114 7.6-Media 114 7.7 Relationship With Hospital 114 7.8 Endnotes 114 8.0 Report Format •••••••••••••••.••••.•...... ••••••••••••.•..••••••.•••..••••••..••...•••••••••••.•••.••••••••••..•••....•• 115 9.0 References...•••••••..•.•••••.••.•...... •••••••...... ••••••••.•.....••••..••..•••...••••...•••...... •••••.••• 117 Austral/Godden Mackay

_Synopsis

This report presents results from a comprehensive archaeological and physical anthropological investigation of the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery.

The Cemetery was known to contain burials of around 175 children from the Asylum which was a benevolent institution that operated on the site between 1858 and 1916.

., - The archaeological/anthropological investigation project was undertaken by a multi-disciplinary team of specialists from Austral Archaeology and Godden Mackay Heritage Consultants.

The work was commissioned by the South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service as part of a major redevelopment at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

Prior to site excavations detailed research, assessment of significance, consultation with relatives, policy development, and strategic planning were completed. Relevant permits for the archaeological work were obtained, initially from the He'ritage Council of NSW and subsequently from the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

The project was overseen by a Management Committee that includes representation from the South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service, the Department of Health, the Heritage Council, the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and the project team.

The on-site excavation occurred over a six month period between August 1995 and March 1996. The remains of sixty-five of the buried children were recovered, along with a range of artefacts relating to the history of the place.

The excavation also revealed an Aboriginal hearth and associated artefacts" which have been dated to at least 8000BP.

An extensive phase of post-excavation analysis of the site stratigraphy, human remains and artefacts has been completed and the ~esearch potential of the place has been substantially realised. The results of this analysis are presented in"this report.

It is intended that the extant remains of the children will be re-interred on site and that the cultural significance of the place will be presented to visitors.

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_ Introduction

1.1 Preamble This report describes and discusses the results of archaeological investigations conducted at the site of the former Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery at Randwick New South Wales.

The archaeological investigations were commissioned by the South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service and were undertaken by a team from Austral Archaeology and" Godden Mackay Heritage Consultants.

The Asylum was established in 1852 by the Benevolent Society for the relief of destitute children. Between 1852 and 1858 its premises were located at Ormond House in Paddington, a temporary site that was used prior to the establishment of a more extensive facility at Randwick on a twenty-four hectare block granted by the Government in 1858. The Randwick Asylum operated until 1915 when the Commonwealth Government requisitioned the property for use as a Military Hospital as a result of Australia's involvement in the World War I. The property was subsequently used as a military and repatriation hospital until 1953 when it became the Prince of Wales Hospital.

The Asylum cemetery was located in the southern portion of the former Asylum grounds (see Figure 1.1). 1 Asylum"records indicated that at least 174 deceased children were interred here between 1863 and 1891 •

During the current program 65 in situ burials were excavated and recorded. A further 216 individual skeletal elements were recovered from dispersed burials. These elements are referred to throughout the following reports as Isolated Finds. The collection represents an MNI of 65 individuals within a possible population of 175. This latter figure being calculated from the number of individuals recorded in the Asylum Registers as having been buried in the Asylum Cemetery (174) together with one unregistered neonate (Burial 42) identified during the excavation program.

One skeletal element forming part of the isolated finds collection was morphologically older than any of the ~) children recorded as being buried in the Cemetery. This element may represent an individual who was not part of the Asylum population, and whose remains were interred either before the establi~hment of the Cemetery or following its closure.

1.2 The Site 1.2.1 Location

The Cemetery site is located at the southern part of the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick as shown in Figure 1.1.

POW Projecl1995 for SESAHS - Volume 1 Page 1 Auslral/Godden Mackay

New South Wales

Centennial Park

Randwick Racecourse

o

km

Figure 1.1 Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery Excavation: Location Plan.

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'- ----, _1 escarpment ~ .2-..:. .J---..-'-. N285 )\,\, \== _._------_.-- \'. 27 N280 26 N275 :r~-:-:-~-~: 25 "; \ '. N270 ,. ,!, ,,, ,i, \ 24 N265 23' ~'\\ N260 :\: ::::\ : \ 22 I, \ = N255 'I ' = ,...... --1111 I I + 111\ + 1111+ + lUll 1111 2/ N250 ~\ ~\ ~ ~ L + + \ + + 20 :I \, '\ N245 { \+ + + + ... \ ... + + /9 N240 =\ \ TP \ ' J :0 \I- + + + + \+ -t-_-,-_-,,<;::,north gate /8 :! \ NP N235 E85 _~t--'., 1\ + + + + \+ 17 erOSlO!!~car osteology -\ ,;----.-'. , \ N230 ~ +\ + + + + ~ /6 : \ '\ N225 : ' : +\ + + + t /5 N220 .\ \ \ I (, + \!lJ + + + 4 14 -\ \ flgt= N2I5 i :. I \ + + + + + . /3 .\ \, \ N210 \ g \ + + + +\ /2 "\ i N205 :: ) i+ + + + +i Isump '\ 1994 machine wheel rut • sitc~ IJ .\ _:,0 ~_. '/-::::) ..-. -- ... _~\ 51{bL....J N200 '.. "(,,!-.t.!.·-·+ T + -- + r + _~-~, su fage ~ ::sile sheds /0 \. palm \\ • /., 1 - \ 1993 trench 13-+- \:I aI N195 \ TP '+ + + + +. I pm ~\ O 9 =. I\I: NI90 .\ "'" '\ south terrace I,:::,J ; f 00 '_'~'_+-'-+' EasySt. , ...... ~.-.+ + "',I 1\ _ 8 ...... ----__.\ \ ,' ....r--.Jo. ... --- ..., :- NI85 ,r..~~~] -l' r \ III Ill'~ '...j.'~xcavaliontrench1994 test f'': ~J\ "1/ /\ 1~ 1995 disturbance I DEF G H/ ...... K" L l~ 1 \M -\\ :0 ~hYdrant E35 E40 E45 E50 E55 E60 E65 "-E70 E75 E80 (\ " \\ '..... }I .. \ sullage I --1111- site perimeter fences cemetery,boundary ~\\ -I l. smiccpole grid boundary \ ~ break ofslope - + grid square corners TP test pit \ 0;" ::L-IIII~=vice pol. J o 10 ! I m Figure 1.2 Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery: Archaeological Excavation. Plan showing the site, excavation grid and cemetery boundary.

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JH T T[,U.. eA"~A"K __'-' A Ul.ANCI OROf' ~, ...-_...... l CARJIIAPiKINQ UNOeft POOIUM VAlUES t·S l£~LS

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Figure 1.3 Plan of the Proposed Development (after Bickford 1993-94).

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N285 27 + N280 26 N275 25 ~ N270 (\ >\: : : >\ :, 24 N265 23 ~\~ ~ ~ N260 :\: :' : :\ \ : \ . - 22 \ \ 1111 1111 \ 1111 1111 N2S5 ~"11 I nil I + + + + +. + 1 ~\ + + N250 220 -\ \ + + + + + \ + \ '\ \ I • + + + + + + \. + N245 ,: \+ Jnorth gate 19 -\ \ TP \ N240 !0 t + + + +L \ osteology 18:. ~\,-_ TP i + + + + \\+ N235 .r;;Sion~car '--, \ . 17 l5 : N230 '\ -\\---~ ~ + + + + \ : j\ _.. 6 N22/ ! +\ + + + + 1 j 15 -\ \ \ f1:::J \ south gate N220 . t h~ t + \ ~ + + + \ ~ ~\ 14 y ran i figtree + + + J 0 N215 \ \ + \ site sheds 13 N210 -\=. \\ B\ + + + + \ ~~\ 12 I \ + + + + + \ Sitl:~ N205 I '\ 1994 mac,!line wheel rut \ 51.38 :Omp ...... ) ... --\:, ARC site sheds 11 1'1200 1~ftJ:;--+-r-+--~99:tren:13~f) -I: -\:1- i c r"J\ 10 \ 0 '+ + + + ~ '\'1 ~ NI95 " , 1 I " TP • ,outhtea= '--.i: \.00 EasySt. 9 '--.... . \ + ol--0-+ + l ::. NI90 "\ r'---.::;.::.-· .-' -'-'--",'-r --1--" :\ 8 .. ------r---} -\~ \ ~ J NI85 ""'" 1994:est H III 111'------.... },excavwontrtnch 1\ 1995 disturbance I 11/,...... \, \ ',.. {o _hydrant F G HI ...... K \ LM - \\ - DE E65 ~70 E75 E80 ('I \.\ E35 E40 E45 E50 E55 E60 '\ \ ',_) I ..\ ,ullage .1

--1111-- site perimeter fences '<-\' II. service pole _._._. cemetery.boundary \: § grid boundary \ •----.. break ofslope _. _. TP+ grid square corners ~\ 0 ::sullage test pit

~ SCiVi"" pol~ J L--.",/" o 10 b I m

Figure 1.4 Site Plan showing 1995 Excavation Grid, Topographic Features and Project Infrastructure.

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1.2.2 Physical Setting

The site is located on the crest and westem flank of a single large fixed dune with a northwest/southeast trend. This location was once part of an extensive dune field within the Botany Lowlands which formed as a result of deposition of Holocene and Pleistocene aeolian sands. Soil profiles revealed during the archaeological investigations are consistent with those usually described as the Tuggerah soil landscape. These typically display a grey brown topsoil (A1 horizon), bleached, white, loose sand (A2 horizon), black, sandy, organic pan and brown, sandy iron pan commonly known as 'Waterloo' or 'Coffee' rock (B horizon) and massive yellow sand (C horizon, deep subsoil).

1.3 Background to the Excavation The archaeological investigation of the cemetery was conducted within a development context and was primarily mitigative in nature. A summary of events leading to investigation of the site follows.

In 1993, the NSW Govemment and the Eastem Sydney Area Health Service (now the South Eastem Sydney Area Health Service) embarked on a Strategic Plan for consolidation of health care services within the Eastem Suburbs and portions of the cities of Sydney and South Sydney. Two components of the Strategic Plan involved provision of a facility for the treatment of Infectious Diseases and Immunology. at Prince of Wales Hospital - the Barker Centre for Infectious Diseases, and construction of a new Ambulatory Clinic - the latter being described as the linchpin of the entire hospital redevelopment plan. The site proposed for these facilities was located in the southem part of the Prince of Wales Hospital Campus, within an area which the SESAHS believed incorporated the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery.

In preparation for the proposed development, the SESAHS commissioned Anne Bickford and Associates to conduct a research and test excavation program in order to determine the location of the Cemeterf. These inve~tigations recovered an historic survey plan showing the location of the Cemetery within the Asylum grounds in 1891 (see Figure 1.2). Comparison of this document with those showing the 'footprint' of the proposed development confirmed that both buildings would affect the·cemetery site. The Barker Centre crossed the southem part of the cemetery, and part of the proposed infrastructure associated with the Ambulatory Clinic impacted upon the northem end of the cemetery (see .Figure 1.3).

Initial physical investigation of the site was conducted on 13 November, 1993. This consisted of an examination of the surface of the location of the recently demolished kit<;:henlstore in the south-east comer 3 of the Cemetery site. No skeletal remains were observed • .

A second phase of investigation was conducted between 13 and 15 December, 1993 resulting in the excavation of thirteen trenches within, and adjacent to, the Cemetery. Nine trenches were excavated by hand and a further four by bob-caf. A single fragment of human bone was recovered during this program.

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On 24 January, 1994 the two northernmost trenches excavated in the previous season were joined, and extended to the west by means of a bulld~zer drive across the 'Whole width of the fonner Cemetery5. The - - results of this investigation were reported in the fonn of plans and sections for four of the thirteen trenches, and a location plan showing all trenches excavated. The conclusion drawn by the excavator was that the Cemetery was not in the location investigated and was more likely to be found in the area to tti~ north of 6 Hut N • The SESAHS proceeded with the excavation and landscaping of the Ambulatory Clinic' site, and with demolition and removal of existing ~uildings (huts associated with the fonner Military Hospital) covering the Barker Centre site.

In a further attempt to locate the Cemetery the development site was investigated between 25 and 28 July, 1994 by the Geophysical Research Institute of the University of New England using ground probing radar. This was reported in August, 1994 and is hereafter referred to as UNE (1994). A series of-anomalies were recognised by this survey although they could not be definitively ascribed to burials.

7 In .August 1994, a number of these anomalies were excavated by Anne Bickford and Associates • All areas investigated lay outside the area occupied by the Cemetery (as defined by the 1891 plan). No human skeletal material was identified.

en'·the 25 November, 1994 Anne Bickford recognised a scatter of human skeletal material in the area formerly occupied by Hut Ra. Between 25 November and 2 December, 1994 this material was collected and sent to the Shellshear Museum for storage. The site of three in situ graves was also recognised. These were covered with protective debris. A number of drainage channels were excavated by the 9 archaeologist at a slightly later date in an attempt to divert surface water from the graves •

Or Denise Donlon revisited the site on 8 May, 1995 and collected further skeletal remains from the same 10 area • These were transferred to the Shellshear Museum for storage. The central location of these ,.. graves within the Cemetery (as defined in 1891) suggested that other graves may be present within the development area.

Subsequent research conducted as a result of this discovery indicated that the cemetery was a highly significant heritage item..The SESAHS responded by undertaking an extensive program of consultation, detailed assessment of tJ;1e significance of the cemetery, evaluation of the impact of the development, and 11 preparation of a Conservation Policy for the site •

The Statement of Significance, prepared in accordance with the State Heritage Inventory Criteria concluded that the site was an item of outstanding cultural significance and met criteria under the values of 12 Association, Community, ·Esteem and Research Potential • The Conservation Policy concluded that the social values of the site ,~id not preclude archaeological excavation and that excavation wo~.lId realise its scientific potentiapa.

In July 1995, invitations were issued for tenders for' the archaeological excavation and short-tenn management of the cemetery. The successful tender was a joint venture be~een Austral Archaeology Pty Ltd and Godden Mackay Pty Ltd.

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The NSW Heritage Council consented to the project on the condition that an archaeological investigation of the cemetery involving the recovery of all human skeletal remains was conducted prior~to the start of 14 building construction •

Archaeological investigations within the development area commenced on August 30, 1995 at the northem end of the cemetery. Recovery of all remaining intact and disturbed graves within the cemetery boundary was completed on February 9, 1996. Ancillary investigation of areas on the southem and westem periphery of the Cemetery was conducted over the following month as there were indications that these areas may have contained human skeletal material from graves disturbed during various historic site formation processes. Clearance of the development area was achieved on March 11, 1996.

1.4 The Project Brief The brief divides the work involved with the Project into Stages, comprising a series of tasks as follows:

Preliminary Work

• Formulation of Research Design.

• Obtain all necessary Permits.

• Submission of detailed work schedule and methodology.

• Establishment of site infrastructure.

On-Site Work

• Archaeological excavation of the site in accordance with conditions described in the Excavation Permit issued by the Heritage Branch of NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning.

• Treatment and Storage of Human Remains and cultural artefacts in accordance with the conditions of the Contract.

• Weekly liaison with the Prince of Wales Project Management Committee regarding the progress of the exc?lvation, management of media and stakeholder interests, re-interment of the human remains and recommendations for future interpretation of the place.

• Completion of detailed history of the site.

Post-Excavation Work • Pr~p'aration of a report indicating successful completion of the fieldwork component of the project for endorsement by the Project's Management Committee.

• Preparation of an interim report describing the results of the fieldwork, the status of the Project with regard to its objectives.

PageS POW Project 1995 for SESAHS - Volume 1 Austral/Godden Mackay

• Post-excavation cataloguing and analysis of human skeletal and cultural materials recovered. " • Preparation of detailed reports on the site and its contents by specialists in history, archaeology, osteology, geomorphology and soil science.

Synthesis of the Specialist's Reports and Preparation of the Final Report on the Project. .

1.5 Approach 1.5.1 Approval

The Project Team's approach to the Prince of Wales site and project emphasises integration of documentary and physical evidence. The research program conducted during the project was designed to achieve maximum recovery of both historic and prehistoric cultural information and physical evidence in an attempt to realise the potential of the site. This work was conducted by a mUlti-disciplinary team, with an ongoing interplay between documentary research, expert specialist advice and archaeological excavation outcomes being an integral feature of the program.

The following sections briefly discuss research undertaken during the project. All research and related investigation that took place on, or in relation to, the site was carried out in accordance with the conservation policy prepared by the SESAHS following extensive consultation with interested parties.

1.5.2 Research Program

Detailed discussion of the context, aims and methods employed during the research program is made in the Research Design prepared for the archaeological investigation. The principal. aspects of the program are summarised below.

• Definition of the chronological order and nature of site formation processes in order to understand the site and its contents.

• Identification and assessment of the location and extent of intact and disturbed deposits within the Cemetery.

• Review of all known primary resources relating to the Destitute Children's Asylum to provide an understanding of the social context of the Asylum and Cemetery.

• Review of the Asylum Register and the Benevolent Society records to obtain death certificates for all individuals interred in the Cemetery in order to determine which individuals may be present, their causes of death, reley~mt genealogical information, and to identify (among other things): any distinct ethnic and/or relig'ious and/or racial groups which may have led to identifiable groupings or burial practices; any groupings based on diseases; and

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evidence relating to use patterns within the site or specific events observed during the investigation.

• Review of literature on Victorian mortuary practices with reference to grave layout, grave contents, etc.

• Review of research literature on nineteenth-century epidemics and epidemiology.

• Detailed research on the history of the military hospital, with particular reference to its construction.

• Assessment of modifications to the military hospital between its establishment and demolition of the hospital buildings.

In addition, issues or subjects on which specialist advice has been obtained include:

• nineteenth-century institutional diets, health and morbidity;

• re-interment protocols for displaced cemeteries;

• identification of recovered coffin fabric and their origins;

• identification of macrobiotic remains;

• palynology;

• parasitology;

• soil science; and

• chemical analysis of substances found in association with graves and Aboriginal archaeological features.

The results of the research program are outlined in Section 6.0.

1.5.3 Preparations and Consultation

Prior to commencement of excavation work on the site, a series of protocols were created in order to take into account the particular sensitivity of the Cemetery. A series of public meetings undertaken before the tender process began, identified particUlar stakeholders and the need to formalise attitudes to the work to be undertaken. Members of both the local Aboriginal community as well as other living relatives of children buried in the Cemetery were consulted so that their requirements could be determined as well as providing these stakeholders with an indication of the archaeological processes involved and the future care intended for any human skeletal remains recovered.

The most important conditions to emerge from these discussions were those associated with respect being offered to the children to be exhumed, respect for the sensitiyities of living relatives and respect for the local Aboriginal community. As part of this process an ecumenical service was held on the Cemetery site before any earth was disturbed. All members of the excavation team and management committee attended the service conducted by the Prince of Wales Hospital chaplains. An important component of the service was

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a smoking ceremony conducted by the Aboriginal group Mimag~ Wajaar (Mother Earth) in liaison with the hospital Chaplain, Father Greg McEnally. The ceremony was attended by members of the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council.

Policies regarding protocols covering on site work, post excavation analysis and re-interment,of human :' skeletal material are documented in Section 4.0.

1.5.4 On Site Investigation

The brief for the archaeological excavation required the project team to recover all grave furniture, burial goods, and human skeletal material (that is, intact graves, disturbed graves, and scatters of human skeletal material) from within the Cemetery area defined in 1891. The boundary of the area had been resurveyed and marked with pegs dUring the 1993-94 archaeological program. At the start of the 1995 investigation this line was re-established and used to define the boundary of the proposed excavation area (see Figure 1.4). During subsequent work this boundary was extended as a result of two factors outlined below:

Firstly, it was known that surface deposits within the Cemetery had been modified during at least two historic disturbance events. The first occurred in 1918 when the site was landscaped to form level terraces for the Military Hospital huts. More recently, in 1994 the surface of the site had been disturbed when these huts were demolished and asbestos contaminated deposits had been removed. The impact of these events on graves within the area was clearly displayed by the highly fragmented, scattered condition of the three .I:>urials identified in 1994. As a result it was reasonable to assume that other graves may have been disturbed and that human bone may have been scattered across the development area.

Secondly, investigations conducted during the early stages of the excavation on the north, west and eastern boundaries of the Cemetery had failed to recover any evidence of a fence line in the area so , marked in 1891. This gave rise to doubts concerning the reliability of the 1891 plan, and concems regarding the validity of using it as the basis for definition of the current excavation boundary.

FollOWing liaison with the SESAHS regarding these matters it was decided to extend the excavation boundary by a minimum of two metres on all sides of the nominal 1891 cemetery boundary. This represented an attempt tp reach a pragmatic compromise between maintenance of the initial excavation boundary, which may ~ave resulted in the failure to recover all human skeletal material within the development area, and investigation of all deposits within the entire development area.

The amended excavation area therefore incorporated the 1891 cemetery boundary plus a two to five metre wide curtilage surrounding it. This measured 2,437.5m2 in area.

Investigation ofthe Cemetery started at the northem end of the site and progressed towards the south. Excavation was conducted by teams of two to three archaeologists working in alphanumerically designated 5m x 5m squares correspqnding to the site grid.. At the completion of the investigation this strategy resulted in excavation of an open area consisting of 121 complete or partially excavated 5m x 5m grid squares.

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1.5.5 Post-excavation Analysis

Following completion of work on site a substantial phase of post-excavation conservation, cataloguing and analysis has been undertaken.

Skeletal material has been conserved, catalogued and stored at the Shellshear Museum of Anthropology at the University of Sydney. Extensive osteological analysis completed has included estimation of age, sex and race, examination of growth and stature and consideration of health, stress and pathology. Particular emphasis was placed upon dental analysis, owing to the relative intactness of teeth recovered. Thirty nine of the burials have been tentatively identified despite lack of grave markers or other identification.

Other cultural material including grave goods and artefacts relating to post-Asylum cemetery use have been catalogued and analysed by type. Separate documentation and analysis has been completed for Aboriginal cultural material recovered during the on-site investigations.

Genealogical research data was gathered by Jan Worthington on individuals buried in the cemetery who were likely to have identifiable living descendants. This genealogical data has been lodged with the Mitchell Library Archives as part of a primary records package including death certificates and the Asylum Register.

1.6 Author Identification and Acknowledgements Many specialists have contributed valuable input to the project reports. The authorship of the report is set out below.

Volume 1

The Synopsis, Statement of Significance and Interpretation Guidelines were authored by Richard Mackay and Justin McCarthy in consultation with Project Team;

The 'Policy was written by Kate Sullivan in1995 and incorporated into this report;

The Introduction was co-authored by Peter Douglas, Graham Wilson and Richard Mackay;

The history was written by Beverley Johnson;

The Synthesis was written by Graham Wison and Peter Douglas with contributions from Richard Wright;

The Research Design was compiled by Nadia lacono with contributions from Graham Wilson, Peter Douglas, Richard Wright, Mary Dallas and Denise Donlon;

The Report Format was written by Nadia lacono.

Volume 2

The Stratigraphy and Burial reports were written by Peter Douglas and Graham Wilson.

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The Aboriginal Archaeological report was writtten by Mary Dallas with contributing sections from Huw Barton and Dominic Steele. "

The Artefact report was authored by Diana Coultas;

Specialist report~ were written by the following:

Soil Analysis: Roy Lawrie; Pollen Analysis: Mike Macphail; Lipid Analysis: Barry Fankhauser; Thermoluminecence: Dr Richard G. Roberts; Parasite Analysis: Claire Everett.

Volume 3

The Physical Anthropology report was co-authored by Denise Donlon and Richard Wright;

Volume 4

The jntial set up of the site grid was undertaken by Franz Reide!. All on-site graphical recording was conducted by Martin Rowney or by trench supervisors under his supervision. Digitisation, corrections' and final plotting of all plans and sections was undertaken by Martin Rowney.

The conduct of the excavation and the reporting of results were reviewed and monitored by the Management Committee -

Tony Angles (Capital Works Unit SESAHS); .-;­ Pamela Barker (Environmental Health Officer, South Sydney Hospital);

Denis Gojak (Heritage Council Representative);

David Ingrey (La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council);

Tracey Ireland (Heritage Branch of DUAP);

Cath Snelgrove (Heritage Branch of DUAP);

Christine Bourke (H~ritage Branch of DUAP);

CaitlinAllen (H~ritage Branch of DUAP);

Rob Loosley (Capital Works Unit SESAHS);

Richard Mackay (Project Team Leader - Godden Mackay);

Justin McCarthy (Project Manager - Austral Archaeology);

KateSullivan (Community Consultation Consultant to SESAHS);

Maria Padua (Public Relations Unit SESAHS); .

Michelle Silberman (Public Relations Unit SESAHS) and

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Victoria Civils-Woods (Public Relations Unit SESAHS) " The excavation team comprised the following:

Project Team Leader: Richard Mackay

Project Manager: Justin McCarthy

Excavation Supervisors: Graham Wilson and Peter Douglas

La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council Reporesentative: David Ingrey

Site Administrator: Patrick Grant

Artefact Supervisor: Diima Coultas

Forensic Scientist: Emeritus Professor Richard Wright

Human Remains Collection Manager: Dr Denise Donlon

Forensic Anatomist: Meiya Sutisno

Photographer: Tony Jenner

Planner: Martin Rowney

Archaeologists: Kevin Bames, Huw Barton, Jodi Benton, Martin Camey, Kevin Hickson, Kate Holmes, Nadia lacono, Jenni Lindbergh, Martin Rowney, Dominic Steele, Peter Tonkin, Ed Visser, Sonia Wright.

Assistants: Craig Barker, Matt Campbell, Jacqui Craig, Mark Dunn, Neringa Lisankaite, Megan Mebberson, Dan Tuck.

Specialist Consultants: Beverley Johnson (Historian), Mary Dallas (Prehistorian), Roy Lawrie (Soils); Claire Everett (Parasites); Mike Macphail (Palynology), Jan Worthington (Genealogist).

1.7 Endnotes , 1The 'current archaeological program revealed an unregistered burial thus raising the total number of interments to 175. 2Anne Bickford 1994, Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick 1852-1916 - Excavation of the Site of the Cemetery, ESAHS. 3Anne Bickford 1993, Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick 1852-1916 - ArchaeologicalAssessment of the Site of the Cemetery, ESAHS, pA. 4Anne Bickford, op. cit., p.1. 51 bid: ,. 6lbid., p.9. 7Anne Bicl

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!1Measured drawing showing location of trenches and flow of wate(Qver'the site by Or Oenise Oonlon, 8 May 1994. ':" 10 ~easured drawing showing location of individual skeletal elements recovered by Or Oenise Oonlon, 8 May 1994. 11 Kate Sullivan and Associates 1995, Conservation Policy for the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum 1853-1915, Prepared for the ESAHS. 12Godden Mackay 1995, Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery Statement ofSignificance, pp.3, 11-15. 13Sullivan, op cit., p.1. 14pOW Excavation Permit.

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_ Historical Overview

2.1 The Need for the Asylum The Asylum emerged from the social and economic circumstance of Sydney at the beginning of the 1850s. Sydney's population included both the unemployed and the under-employed, the seasonal or casual workers. Some men had jobs away from Sydney which left their wives and children financially insecure. There was dislocation with the discovery of gold. The colony was young and many were without social or family support. Also, school attendance was not yet compulsory. The result was children on the streets and in the magisterial process.

The concem for the magistrates was what to do with the child if the parents were judged unfit to care for it or could not be found. Gaol was inappropriate. If both parents, or the father, were alive, the child did not qualify for an Orphan School. The Benevolent Asylum was not designed for the long term care of children and some sent there by magistrates had escaped.

The men who came together in February 1852 to discuss their concerns were prompted by philanthropic, professional and religious motives. They were sufficiently prominent and influential to be able to gain the support of the Colonial Secretary and the Governor-General (the title used) of the Colony.

The outcome was the formation of the Society for the Relief of Destitute Children and the intention to establish an asylum which would care for three categories of children:

1. Children found bythe police orothers without protection, whose parents could notbe discovered, or whose parents had been convicted as vagrants, drunkards, ordisorderly characters, unfit to care for their children.

2. Children abandoned by theirparents and left without friends orprotection.

3. Children, eitherofwhose parents was an abandoned ordissolute character, and who may be placed by the otherparent in the proposed asylum on payment ofa fixed sum for their maintenance.!

The intention was to:

give the children a sound and useful education, and to train them in available habits ofindustry, until they reach an age when they maybe disposed ofin the manner which may be most conducive to their individual interest and the general good ofsociety.2

Initially the 'profligacy pr abandonment' of the parents had to be proved before a magistrate, later this authority was vested in the House Committee of the asylum.s .'-:

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2.2 Period 1: Paddington 1852·1858 The Asylum was established first in Ormond House, a leased property at Paddington, in June~1852. As an additional means of disassociating the children from their former life, they (or at least those old enough to comprehend) were called by number rather than by name, a system used in some American institutions.4

i=lgu;e2.1 Map of the Municipality of Randwick 1892, Higginbotham and Robinson (Source: Mitchell Library M4 811.181/1892/1)

.',.

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,I

Figure 2.2 The Destitute Child'r~'s Asylum (Source: W.B. Lynch and FA Larcombe, Randwick 1-859­ 1976, p43).

"

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Eventually the practice ceased because, "there was an outcry raised that we were numbering the chilcl~E?n like cattle...."5

Soon there was a waiting list. Alterations were made and new structures added. When the Asylum received a substantial bequest at the death of the honorary surgeon/medical officer, the Society applied for a grant of land nearby.

2.3 Period Two: Randwick and the 18605 Instead of obtaining land in Paddington, the Society received two grants at Randwick, a suburb which in 1866 a newspaper described as, "perhaps one of the most aristocratic as well as the most healthful"5 (see Figure 2.1).

The first wings of the new Asylum - designed to be completed as required - were occupied in March 1858.7

Ultimately the establishment would be capable of accommodating one 0 thousand children and would include a receiving house, hospital, superintendenfs house, four employee cottages and a farm overseer's dwelling (see Figure 2.2). There was an office in the city.

The new establishment was deemed a success. The health and appearance of the children improved considerably, they had a more 'generous' diet. The bay, within a quarter of an hour's walk, had good facilities for bathing. The children were taken walking twice weekly. They had gardens assigned to them. Gymnastic poles had been donated to encourage athletic exercises. Composer and musician Isaac Nathan of nearby Byron Lodge volunteered to teach the children singing.

The qualifications of those in charge were of a high~r standard than at Paddington. A new master, to be called superintendent, and matron had been chosen from twenty-five applicants. The children were attending school within the Asylum and the new school master had previously been master of St Philip's Parochial School. 8

The girls made all the clothing, with the help of a seamstress, did domestic work and worked in the laundry. The boyso}had commenced plaiting at Paddington and for such work done in their leisure hours received a small payment. The elder boys worked outside. Cows were purchased and one hundred fruit trees were donated.9

By the end of 1860, the Board was able to report to the Annual Meeting -

The Society for the ReliefofDestitute Children has now reached a period in its existence when its arrangements have become so matured that the duties ofthe Board are almost entirely confined to carrying out that regular and well ordered routine ofmanagement which time and experience have enabled them to organise. The directors are glad that it is in theirpower to report, on this its ninth anniversary, that the institution is in so satisfactory a condition that there is, comparativelyspeaking, but little to lay before the subscribers. 10

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2.4 Diet With the move to Randwick, a new diet scale was drawn up (see Figures 2.3 and 2.4). The requirement was for economical, sufficient and wholesome food. 11

One of the first priorities was a vegetable garden. The quantities of vegetable and milk produced were reported with pride at each annual meeting and there was usually a display of vegetables for the visitors. At the end of 1862, vegetables were seen as an important factor in the almost complete disappearance of skin eruptions which had been a common occurrence amongst the children.12

All the bread was made in the Asylum and when the bread mix was altered to 1/3 maize meal with wheaten flour a considerable saving resulted.13

The following description of the weekly diet is from 1866:

The dietary scale is ample, andcare has been taken to vary it The children have boiled meat with soup and vegetables, three days perweek - i.e. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. On Thursdays they have baked meatand vegetables; on Fridays plum-pudding, and on Sundays baked meat andplum-pudding. Each child is allowed for dinner sixounces ofmeat (weighed before cooking), halfa pound ofvegetables, and two ounces ofbread. Forbreakfast six ounces ofbread, with tea andponidge alternately. Forsupper, six ounces ofbread, with tea. Milk andsugarare allowed with the tea andponidge. ..14

A brief reference from 1873 noted that 'veal and pork from the animals bred on the farm have occasionally provided a change of diet for the children'.15

The preparation of the food changed with the size of the institution. In 1869, the kitchen included 'three huge receptacles' - one for roasting, one for boiling, and one for steaming vegetables. 16 A reference from 1890 mentions, ''the 'usual large coppers' for tea, soup, and puddings".17

In 1867 there was great concern over an epidemic of whooping cough and measles. Those at greatest risk, some one hundred children, were given extra milk, beef-tea, and wine in ~udicious abundance'.18

2.5 Work Within the Asylum The Annual Report for 1873 is one of the few to detail the children's work within the institution:

144 boys and 142girls from 9 to 13years old to select from for the several industrial and domestic occupations. These are engaged during alternate weeks, andare thus distributed - Engaged on farm or garden, 35boys; engaged in milking, morning and evening, 6 boys; engaged in shoemaking, 10 boys; engaged as engineers, 2 boys; engaged as carpenters, 2 boys; engaged in sericulture, 2 boys; engaged as yard boys 2; engaged as store boy, 1; engaged in kitchen with cooks and baker6 boys; engaged cleaning tinware, knives, forks, andspoons 6 boys; engaged as seNants to male officers, 2 boys. Total daily engaged 74 boys.

The girls are in like manner engaged in making beds, arranging furniture, &c., in their dormitories untiIB.45, when the daily distribution is made, viz. Laundrygirls 16; cooks and general seNants, 14; cleaning knives

POW Project 1995 for SESAHS - Volume 1 Page 21 -a ...Cl CD NI NI

;cCi'O"TI coE; CD ell -Nc... • t: W -<~ ..... en \ C:O'< 01­ .c:ot: 3 ..,0' .A.SILU}! IrOR, DESTITUTE CHILDltEN, ItAND'vVIUK. \.-"

SCALE OF DAILY RATION FOR CHILDREN OVER SEVEN YEARS OF AGE.

JULY, 18,)8. ---,~--,"-, ~-'-'- m:~:;"-~=-'~=i\=lJ=J='K=,=~~==-'=-'~'~-~-~SL:~~~~~_._~:'~'. '::;:~, ·'==---:g~·J~L,-~Jl~~;~;~~,~~k,~;i~~,.-~r~ ~;;;:. § - M'.', ',=. (L'._.. :,80A11.;II"- c. I --tl---:----,----,---,--- _ JL_-I ' n~,;~ , C,UlIlors,; ~.::.o,,:.., '. ' 'UN"•. :r .It, ~. ll,\,YR I~ 'i ',.. =~.; ~ .,; ~ ~ !I;l ~ I 0 .! ~ ':.5 0 11 '; I 0 '0 't 111 t :! ~ ~I ~ ::s\ ~ g. ~ oS - l=.. :s~,:§ E ~] ia ~ ~ "ii,:::; ~ ~1~I!clt~ U.lll).h ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ,,~ ~'11 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~, :E ;; .t ,:; 1 1 ,t " ,f I' ,g I' I' I 'r I ': ---:-- _I~ --- l- I: - -~: - I-~-I- ~ ~ ~ l~ 1- '- 1 ~ MONl1.n: ." 4 mel::. 6 10 ;r,:i 1 0 11 '.. r. k!1 2: 4. Ij 1 I I 1 , ~ 'l'rn,~J)'\ Y ... 0 2 G a ~ ~ io : ~ ~ ~ G !; ~ 3 G I ;0 Jt: :i '.. ~ ~ ~ l~ ~ l~ , () w]w::mSDAY '" G 2 6 14 k 1 f.J I,' 6 ., i. iiJ• ~ ~ ~ ~ , '!"nuwmAY ..' i fl G 12 -?i 1]1 f,j I, 6 I l. ]CR.1DAY .'. to ~ n n' • " ijj i~ lo 1~ 5 SNfmmAY (I 2 (I 1 n ,..n I l • (j iJ iD" i;j fii l~ RllNDAY ... (I 2 (I 1 n I,~ I ;, i'ii ! (I iii

8 88 a'~ 3~ '( r- ) 12:: oaG rci it i1: 4 \8 10 l~: ~-~_. ~-_.- ._~ -l-.--.\...... - --i •• --t--" ...... ,1 ••

SCALE OF DAILY RATION FOR CHILDREN UNDER SEVEN YEARS OF AGE. -0 III on CC -. ~ CCI ll1tBA n. CD --,,..-_II_[_J!~._K_. _-,...__.... -0 • !:i L,. !_ .2. c:...m m CN ! U -<~ ~ ~ ~ ~ CD ...... » q "- U1 co en I 01,< go CO- en •C I .... enm 3 » ::c 0 ~111~ I~ , 1 en -... lIWNDA'Y •.. a 1;J I." "iii j., .< Cl 0 CD ., 1:: I I i: ... 1 \;Iir: I~ l~ Il iii 3 ~ r." " re ill m E: ,! " n I J~.u~m:-l]).A y " <1 ~ 1~ ;1 I CD w "'j 'fthl 1 id III" "Iii N iii - I (') '" t/~ l~ 11 r, 11 1 I 2: I;, c: '" '" m iJ iil Cil .(. I l~ 11 Il !. )"l\HJA'Y '" 2 .,f...ftJ; k iil iil" h, ? " :0 l. ;j I III SNl'lJmJAY 4 ·1 lhI'z.1 14 j' j;i :J C. ~llJNI)AY ... 4 I I) 1~ 11 11 . .j I 1 :E ill i" j; j;; IT, er tr-.!,:tius.. I ?r , I I ~~ lO~ ,~l :!~1: ~~ ,'. (J) I HO ]01 1";: III 1 (') III ------~ ~ .__ ~--~-= ..... --~...1_-,_~_~ i-._ ~-:-::"t.-~v_;;: __ ---=-.~- _ CD 0 '" \\~h('H P.unt.ill~t C:lbl.ll.!.!;{'. :rul'uipli m'c it\tltll.'tl ,Iuubll' t)w '1Hnhlil~' Ilr Pul.alu..'J:llu· f.::U'l'(I\ij iN ~ivcn, Yl'~(\ta),l(~ l~IVl lTfll'Uli fl,r ~'-'lIpH. Pt·lIo.l, Pc.'t1rl HIU·k·y \'\:~. m~ l't.·tJuil'<.;,) i -Cl ,,' uC 1\ l!1I1t Ot'N-IHlp i:; lAA\1l'll ",11"11 tlu'! HI"ltt i~ lmilt.. ,!. t\\it~l':t W.Il,1t jf prlu~til'ahlt, it il\ lU\~t:ll, ~ng~l1' 01' 'l'~·~.lt"I(, i~ i&:I\l\ll with Uu," 131''''1\11 ut Il'll al;w with l1u.'I ~. l)wltliu:.; UIl j?l,.dll~ tJ, -< t O~ltm(llllr lbh~t., ulCul uml \\qu.,'OIt lUl-ll! i::l i~tiul.'ll u,!tt'rnhhi:y, l\d,'lo a wl'l'lt I'Ul' J~I'(.'nl(ru:::tt in Hell ul'tl'lI. :0 ~ SU(,hIlIlHl Im' IlPJtl'iH'fIl, o' :1. lVI. ~[A Y, 8ttj,,'/:illt/!1/Ih'ltl. :J 1',\ AII!fm/, P";;~I 0- ... .1l'L'lIor/l'f) 'PI/It lw.-JIi'J) OP jJllUWl'OIl,\; (') J!l' 2: A, 11. /'JTm)m~N", lIo/!. SfG'r<'(17I'!j, c: , , Cil :J \.' 0 < ...CD en CD < CD :J '< CD III Cil -0 "'Cl Cl>

and forks, plates and tinware, 6; needlework room, 8;general servants and assistant cooks atCatherine Hayes Hospital, 8; sericulture 3; cleaning bath room, arranging donnitories &c., 10. Total daily employed 65 girls. 19

The intention regularly expressed was that industrial training would be developed when money became available.

2.5.1 Apprenticeship

The system evolved over time. At fourteen (or no younger than twelve) the children were apprenticed, but only to subscribers. They were not placed in Sydney with its bad influences, nor were they to go to the remoter parts of the colony where supervision would be difficult. They were given a handbook which set out the terms and conditions of their apprenticeship and provided other information.20 Because there had been attempts to defraud children, the greater proportion of their wages were paid into a savings bank. Some children were apprenticed within the Asylum.

2.6 Period Three: Change and Decline Some aspects of the institution changed during the 1870s. In 1871, the number of children in the Asylum peaked with the daily average reported as eight hundred and five children and forty-one apprentices21 although Superintendent May elsewhere quoted a figure of nine hundred.22 Consequently, the efficient and economical running of the Asylum sometimes took precedence over the training of the children.

Education became the responsibility of the Department of Education in 1877. Previously, preparation for earning a living had been seen as equal to if not more important than a formal education and for some, school and asylum work had alternated.

2.6.1 Boarding Out

During the 1870s, there were pressures on government to replace institutional care with a system of boarding individual children with suitable families and the appropriate legislation was passed in 1881. The Asylum made some attempt to adjust but the changes were small and between 1883 and 1886 children who had come from the Benevolent Asylum - 'state' children - were withdrawn as the government instituted the change. Government funding ceased after 1885.

The directors altered their focus to those 'respectable' parents who needed short or long term help in caring for their children.

In 1903 there was an attempt to sell superfluous asylum land.23 This was not successful and the institution continued to exist on income from investments, private contributions and payments from parents.

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2.7 The Closing of the Asylum In 1914, with the country involved in war, the directors offered the Minister for Defence the use of the southem portion of the asylum building, the hospital and the vacant lands south of the hospital. With negotiations underway in 1915, the State Govemment announced a bill to take over the property and. convert it to a permanent hospital for disabled and invalided soldiers and sailors. A detailed analysis would ­ be required to represent accurately the political manoeuvring and the various legal, social and welfare~ positions argued.

In August, the Commonwealth Minister for Defence requisitioned the entire property for a military hospital. At the same time the State Govemment referred its bill to a Select Committee.24

The remaining fiftY children left Randwick on 12th October 1915. They were boarded out, released to parents or friends, or transferred to the Cottage Home at Mittagong.25 The Report of the Select Committee, dated 11th October, recommended that the buildings and lands be re-vested unconditionally in the Crown. ""::;' This was achieved with the passing of the Destitute Children's Society (Vesting) Act in 1916.

DUrin~ the sixty-three years some 5,805 children had been cared for,26 the greater majority of whom had lived at Randwick.

'The membership of the Society'· it has been observed 'read like a Who's Who of the New South Wales Colonial Society and from the 1850s onwards was the most fashionable of all Victorian charities in the . Colony.'27 ~ ~ ... ~ .~~ .....

2.8 The Site for the New Asylum The area chosen for the new Asylum was described as 'delightfully situated on the heights above Coogee Bay'.28 The negative aspect of such a position was exposure to the elements. In 1862, an extensive belt of trees was planted which, it was observed, would provide pleasant shade in summer but also 'break the violence of the southerly and westerly winds in the winter' .29

In 1nO, James Cook described the coastline of Botany Bay, "(the) great part of the Country for some distance in land from the sea Coast is mostly a barren heath diversified with marshes and Morasses".3o

This, it has been suggested, was an accurate description of the area which would become known as Randwick. Timber would have grown only in the valleys facing seaward to Coogee. 31

The resources of the Randwick-Coogee area had early attracted Europeans. Hunting and fishing were popular. Some camped. There was the timber:

Forty years ago (1820) I brought many a load ofwood out ofCoogee . •. what was called Coogee was a greatgully where there was a great deal oftimber, gum-trees, mahogany and other types.32

When most of the tall trees had been removed what remained was sold as firewood. The result was to destroy the bonding of the sandy topsoil, resulting in dust and sand storms that spread over the city. The

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Kadigal people, the Aboriginal inhabitants of the area, moved to the south where the Europeans had not yet been so destructive.33

No reference has been found to any European land use before the two areas were delineated for the asylum. The land was surveyed by Lewis Gordon in early 1855.34

2.9 The Asylum Grounds By 1864, all sixty acres of the Asylum had been 'reclaimed' and all land suitable for the production of vegetables had been cultivated.35 The directors had discussed street sweepings with the City Council presumably for use in the gardens, but were told they would have to pay for them.36 Then, one of the improvements carried out in 1865 was 'the drainage of the asylum with the disposal of the sewage'.37 No explanation is given but this may have been the first year in which sewage was used as manure. The following year the report was more specific, stating that 'the sewage from the Asylum has been carried upwards of a quarter of a mile from the main building, to the lower paddocks which have been laid down with grass, and which it therefore serves to fertilise. 13B

In 1868, the Asylum was given the use of some forty acres to the west of Botany Road which had been reserved for the Benevolent Asylum. The reason was most likely alack of water on the asylum site.3B

The Benevolent Asylum land was also inadequate, Superintendent John May said in 1873, because of its poor quality, it was only white sand. It took a great deal of manure (they used all the sewage from the asylum) and the shortage of manure was the chief reason he was unable to do more. Also, there was very little shelter, the south winds which came up from Botany were at times very cutting. The farm provided all the green vegetables for the Asylum,. but only a small proportion of the potatoes it needed because of insufficient manure and the exposed position..40

The Benevolent Asylum land was resumed by govemment in 189941 althoLigh the Asylum appeared to have had access to it or other land until the end of 1902.42

There had been an early experiment with cotton growing43 and a longer period of growing mulberries. Sericulture was practised for a decade or so, beginning with a donation of three thousand cuttings.44 An exhibit of cocoons and silks was sent to France and received a favourable report in 187445, however, in 1876 the directors recommended that sericulture cease.46

2.9.1 1917· Rubbish in the Grounds

In October 1917 an inquiry was held into the administration of the hospital. Several witnesses referred to the masses of overgrown building spoil - bricks, lime, mortar and other rubbish - with which the hospital site was littered. One witness stated that it amounted to 'hundreds of tons'. There were complaints about wind­ blown dust and sand making it impossible to keep the hospital buildings clean. There was no indication as to whether the material was removed from the site or used as fill.47

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2~10 Number of Deaths No detailed analysis has been done of the relationship between the number of deaths and the number of children in the Asylum, or of any internal or environmental factors which may have contributed. For example, for many years, some if not all of the children slept two to a bed. Also, it is uncertain what happened to the sewage before 1865 when reference was made to 'the drainage of the asylum with the disposal of the sewage'.48 As well, the Catherine Hayes Hospital did not open until March 1870, until then a portion of the Asylum was used as a hospital ward.

The greatest number of deaths occurred in 1867 when seventy-eight children died from whooping cough and measles. There were seventeen deaths in 1875 and eleven in both 1866 and 1868. In other years, the numbers varied between zero and six.49

Comparing the death rate in the Asylum for 1869 to 1891 with the NSW aggregate rates, shows ,that apart from 1875, the Asylum rate was similar to the average for five to ten year olds.

Before 1869, the asylum death rates were above NSW levels (see Figure 2.9).

2.11 The Cemetery There is no record of European or asylum use of tile cemetery ground prior: to it being fenced in 1863.50 At the same time, there is no precise description of where the various agricultural activities were established before their removal to Benevolent Asylum land.

There is one surviving description of the cemetery in its maturity:

There has been only one death since 1884, though far away to the back of the grounds we saw a prettily­ plantedshady-looking plot railed off. That, we were told, was the burying ground belonging to the institution.51

By then - April 1890 - there were one hundred and seventy-two children buried there and the final burial would take place eleven months later, in March 1891.

Surviving records - many of which are annual reports - make no reference to the cemetery. In practical terms there were no changes that required reporting; in philosophical terms, death was an admission of failure. The asylum was for healthy children, children who would grow up as independent human beings and contribute to the development of the colony. All reports referred to the health of the children and the low number of deaths comparative to the number in the Asylum. Later, much was made of the number of years since the last death.

The implication contained in the 1890 paragraph is that the visitor needed to be told the plot was the burial ground. Either there were neither crosses nor headstones, or the distance between the viewer and the cemetery was such they could not be seen (for site of cemetery see Figure 2.5).

At its most basic, the burial marker is to identify the plot for the visitor. But it seems likely that few parents or friends of the dead children would have visited Randwick; some would have been seen as a bad influence

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and not encouraged to do so. Of those who wished to, many would not have been able to afford the cost or the time, others were in gaol, some lived elsewhere in New South Wales. Then, in the earlier period, there was the physical difficulty of getting to Randwick. Perhaps the only record necessary was a drawn plan naming each burial plot. There was a register of deaths.52

There are a number of reasons to assume that the cemetery received the same attention as other parts of the asylum grounds.

There is the 1890 observation. The description 'prettily-planted shady-looking' suggests a place of repose, an area that was designed and cultivated. From 1858 into the 1870s, trees and shrubs were donated to the asylum. The donors included James Pearce (300 hundred pine trees), Simeon Pearce; nurserymen Baptist, Shepherd, Guilfoyle (landscape gardener responsible for the gardens of Thomas Mort's 'Greenoaks'53), Graham and Saxby; and Charles Moore, Curator of the Botanical Gardens (see Figure 2.10).54 In 1862 it was reported:

the front grounds ofthe Asylum have been tastefully laid out, andplanted with omamental trees, shrubs, and flowers, which has materially improved the appearance ofthe premises, and has given them a completeness andan aspect oforder which had long been needed.55

Later, the asylum paths drew praise. qt an area which a few years earlier had been 'a mere unimproved area of white sand' the Sydney Morning Herald observed:

We have seldom seen anygarden, even in connection with the best establishments, in such beautiful order as that at the Asylum. The gravelled walks in particular, both here and in otherparts ofthe grounds near the buildings, are exceedingly well kept. Not a weed is to be seen in any direction, and the gravel is all raked as smooth as itis possible for gravel to lie. 56

The jewel of the colony's philanthropic enterprise was framed by order and beauty reflecting the discipline and well-being of the children within its walls.

The appearance of well-being was as important as its reality and no physical area could have been excluded. There was the significance of the Asylum and what it would achieve, the social and political status of the men associated with it and the visitors - of whom three were members of the English royal family - who came to inspect and admire. The Governor of New South Wales was the patron, and the president of the board was the Colonial Secretary.

Also, the continuing presence of clergymen either on a day-to-day basis or officiating at a burial would have required the conventions to be observed.

Finally, there was the expertise of the nurserymen donors, the availability of juvenile workers and the enthusiasm of the superintendent.

Originally the cemetery included a brick structure. No plan has survived, but the outline as recorded in December 1890 has a'sense of architectural design (see Figure 2.6): Its function is a matter for conjecture.57.

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", . , '" Figure 2.5 Randwick Sheet No. 37. Detail Survey Branch, Department of Lands, Sydney, December 1891. (Source Sydney Water Plan Room).

POW Project 1995 for SESAHS - Volume 1 Page 29 Austral/GuddeD Mackay

When the children entered the Asylum they were recorded as either Roman Catholic or Protestant and consequently buried according to the rites of the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church. This distinction was not always easy to determine in the absence of a relative or friend. An asylum register entry from the Paddington period reads, "He cannot tell ... in what religion he has been brought up... Does not X himself when he says his prayers. "58.

The first burial in the cemetery took place on 20th October, 1863, in the presence of the Superintendent and some forty children. The final interment was on 19th March, 1891.

There is a sense of institutional self-sufficiency about the burials. Initially the role of undertaker or acting undertaker was ascribed to the superintendent, the schoolmaster and on one occasion, the gardener. By the mid-1860s, the more traditional association was established, with the'asylum carpenter recorded as undertaker on each death certificate.

Any information conceming coffins is hidden within the anonymity of the Society's surviving financial records. From the period a carpenter was employed, it can be conjectured that he and the boys constructed them. Altemately, coffins or timber may have been donated, though none are included in the lists of donations published in the annual reports. J. G. Raphael, for instance, a strong supporter of the Asylum, in 1869, became a partner in a cabinet-making and fumiture importing business.s9 Cabinet makers also made coffins.

Although a considerable amount of research was done to establish the materials from which coffins were made for the community generally, no documentary information was found except for an 1864/65 disagreement between the Superintendent of the Gladesville Mental Hospital and the office of the Colonial Architect, conceming the finish of a coffin.

The Superintendent, "the coffins should be painted black and made of solid boards one inch thick and not smeared over with lamp black and water like the last".

A note in the file of the Colonial Architect, ''The proper preparation for coating Coffins Black is Lamp-black and Size. Black paint would not be at all suitable. The coffins should be made of sound 1 inch Boards".60

Records for the Benevolent Asylum give only the price quoted by the tenderer. 61 Oral suggestions by those presently in the business were 'maybe' or 'probably' Australian Cedar, SilkY Oak, Maple, Rosewood, Oak, Deal or Pine. There was the suggestion that the polished coffin was a recent innovation.

Most burials were conducted by a priest from either Waverley or Randwick parishes, men who had a directorial or pastoral association with the Asylum.

Prior to the establishment of the Asylum Cemetery (and occasionally after that), the children were buried in various places - Camperdown Cemetery, the Roman Catholic Burial Ground in Sydney, St Jude's Cemetery, Randwick.

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\ \' I I I ...... ~I C". I

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Figure 2.6 Field Book No. 1898, T.B.V. Sloman, Surveyor. Detail Survey Branch, Department of Lands, December 1890. (Source: Sydney Water Plan Room).

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It seems likely the Asylum Cemetery was established because it was cheaper than any altemative. Apart from the costs associated with the burial, there was the complication of transporting the children to another place. As well, a cemetery within the establishment may have been a part of the expressed moral philosophy of separating the children from the evil influences of Sydney, which the Randwick site did so effectively while still being reasonably close for all other purposes.

Physically, the Cemetery was most likely sited so that any drainage would be away from the ground area which was the source of the asylum water supply.

Early in the new century, with the Asylum short of money, it was decided to lease four areas of unused asylum land52 one of which included the burial ground. Official sanction was gained for the remains of the children to be re-interred elsewhere. The Chief Surveyor recognised the need for exhumation. Some months atter the auction he wrote, "So long as the remains are here it will prejudice the value for residential sites of the area and that surrounding it.".53

The auction in November 1903 was not a success. Superintendent Joseph Coulter believed this was because the asylum subdivisions were auctioned as 99-year leases, whilst at the same time the Department of Lands was selling freehold property in the immediate neighbourhood.54

Th~ remains of the children were not exhumed and the Cemetery slipped into anonymity until 1915 when Coulter was questioned by a member of a Select Committee, "How long is it since there was any interment in the cemetery there?", to which he answered, 'it is many years ago; I cannot give the exact date. No one would known it was a cemetery at all by the appearance of the place."65

2.11.1 Discovery of the Cemetery

That would seem to have been the case when in March 1918, the remains of one of the children was found by someone excavating in the grounds of what was now the Military Hospital. The excavation work was to level the area prior to the construction of additional hutslwards. Discussions took place over what should be done. Randwick Council agreed to re-inter the children in individual graves.

Atter consulting the Asylum Register of Deaths which he had placed with other items in the Military Hospital, the last Superintendent, Joseph Coulter, stated that a total of one hundred and seventy-four children had been buried in the cemetery, one hundred and three boys and seventy-one girls. (A 1995/96 search of Asylum Registers and death certificates found one hundred and seventy-three children, ninety­ nine boys and seventy-four girls.) Coulter was to have been asked if the Cemetery had been dedicated but there is no reference to the question being answered.

One person who inspected the site in June 1918 reported:

The area comprises a gentle westerly slope and the soil is almostpure sand thinly grassed. There are no headstones norany otheroutward indications ofthe existence ofthe graves . ..66

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The New South Wales Public Works Department was consulted because it had been responsible for the removal of the Devonshire Street Cemetery. The Under Secretary replied, in part:

It is reported there is nothing whatever to indicate the presence ofgraves and it would be difficult to give an accurate estimate ofcost for searching the whole area, which covetS about2,500 sq. yds. The little knol/ at the Cemetery site is nothing butpure sand and to make separate excavations to any considerable depth would necessitate timbering. In the operations ofthe DefenCe Department, it is proposed to cut away the hil/ and this work wil/ afford the most convenient means ofdealing w.ith the Cemetery area, as the material wil/ be taken from a face and the remains as discovered can be col/ected andheld for re-interment, when the whole area has been dealt with: this, itis expected, wil/ be finished in a few weeks. 67

In June, Randwick Council agreed to make one grave available.68 The final record about the matter, dated 24th JUly, 1918, noted, "Interview with Mr. Oakshott, Federal Director of Public Works, I feel sure that the Federal authorities will readily acquiesce in this arrangemenf'.69

There exists one more reference to the Cemetery, with little context, made in 1939 by Arthur Percival, then Commonwealth Surveyor-General and Chief Property Officer of the Department of Works. He told a Parliamentary Hearing:

:!here was a hil/ on the south-west side. There was a cemetery, in front ofthe hil/between Avoca-streetand the rear ofthe property. We removed the cemetery, cut the hil/ down, andgraded from the south-west comer back towards the main permanent building. We arranged that the fitSt wards should be 3 feet above the path, the next 3 feet below the path andso on .70

None of the records searched - Commonwealth, State of Local Govemment - indicated what happened to the remains of the children.

2.12 The Military Hospital

Twenty-one huts or wards (Nos. 10 to 30) were constructed during the second half of 1918. 71 Nos 23,25, 27 and 29 were built over the area of the Cemetery.

A survey of that part of the hospital grounds in October 1920 indicated that Nos (19, 21) 23, 25, 27 and 29 were vacant. No. 23 was noted as having an asbestos roof and walls whilst 25, 27 and 29 had asbestos walls but roofs of galvanised iron72 (see Figure 2.7). They were the same in 1924.73

On 1 JUly, 1921, the Repatriation Commission took over the hospital from the Department of Defence.74

2.13 Coast Hospital Auxiliary Randwick After negotiations dUring 1925/26, in 1927 approximately half the hospital accommodation, including the eight wards numbered 22-29 was handed over to the State and began an association with the Coast Hospital, with staffing and administration controlled from there. It was identified as the Coast Hospital

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Auxiliary Randwick75 (for the Auxiliary Hospital in 1942 see Figure 2.8). Later changes of administration have not been researched.

2.14 Later Activity In April 1927, two of the wards (not identified), each of thirty beds, were opened. It was noted that they had been built and used for military patients, 'but had been empty for some years',76 In 1929, an additional ward of thirty beds was opened, making a total of four wards in use.77

The steam services to wards 23, 25, 27 and 29 were renovated during 1931, also the ends of unspecified verandahs were enclosed. There was renovation and repair of buildings 'generally',78 Work done in 1932 included erecting cubicles in ward 23 (and 26),79

Later the four wards received new identities indicating their function: 23: Hut N Orthotics, 25: Hut P Volunteers, 27: Hut R Chest Clinic, 29: Hut T Genetics.

The space between the two rows of huts (each of ten) of which the cemetery site was a part, was named by soldiers in the military hospital 'Easy Street'. In 1993, Easy Street was described in a newspaper report as 'an alley of 16 timber and corrugated-iron huts' which were built in 1915 as a temporary measure but had 'survived to become a Sydney landmark'. The occasion was a street party to farewell the huts which were to be demolished to make way for a new 'super hospital'.

Activity on the site during 1993/94 included:

BO • the demolition of the wardslhuts ; • an archaeological investigation (1993/94); • clearance of the area as part of a program of asbestos removal; • a sand extraction program in the northem section of the cemetery area; and, • installation of a gas line across the site.

2.15 Epigraph The Asylum for the Relief of Destitute Children was an important presence in the colony of New South Wales for sixty-three years. Significant in decline as it had been at its beginning, it exemplified the nineteenth-eentury belief in the immorality of poverty, and its history illustrates practice and change in techniques of caring for such children.

2.15.1 Attitudes to Poverty

Attitudes to and definitions of poverty have varied over centuries and in different cultures, influenced by philosophical or religious interpretations of human behaviour. From time to time these changes have

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included concern over what mechanisms needed to be put in place to prevent the 'exploitation' of a social or economic response to poverty. Stephen Garton, in his analysis of poverty and social welfare in AustraliaS1 , links the attitudes in the colony of New South Wales to events and debates in England in the preceding century.

2.15.2 AMoralisation of Poverty

In the second half of the Eighteenth Century, a considerable number of enclosure acts resulted in the movement of agricultural people to London and other cities. There many found their skills to have little or no value in the new factory system. Considerable poverty resulted.

Also, in earlier eighteenth-eentury London there had been little division between various groups of people. Drinking, gambling and violence were activities of both the poor and the aristocracy and there was consequent social contact. The emerging middle class were not impressed by this behaviour in either group and were also concerned about disease. Their activities brought change and improvement to parts of the city to which the 'respectable' classes were then drawn, resulting in an increasing geographical and cultural isolation of the remainder. This growing 'othemess' engendered fear in parts of the larger population and a consequent sense that there needed to be new ways to 'contain the threaf of poverty.S2

At the time there were two ways of ieceiving assistance. The destitllte could obtain food and shelter through the charity of a private organisation or the church. Poor relief, usually money sometimes food, under the Poor Law was available for the impotent, able bodied, or criminal poor, in return for work done in the parish or the workhouse.s3

In the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Century there was much discussion about the Poor Law. Its defendants, the more conservative, were concerned that industrial changes were altering traditional social relationships. The Poor .Law, anchored to small geographical areas, was seen as important to village society and to the maintenance of the conventional relationship between labourer and master. Also, poverty was natural to society and part of the Christian responsibility.54

Others believed the Poor Law encouraged people to remain unemployed. Market forces would ensure that any person who wanted to work would be able to do so. Poverty and unemployment implied a conscious choice and a preference for indolence.s5

Garton observes:

By UJe early 19th century UJese ideas contributed to an emerging language ofclass; UJe labouring poor were reclassified as UJe working classes and UJe term 'poor came to signify a smallergroup living on UJe margins ofsociety.B6

Also, Evangelical criticism of the Poor Law, Garton argues, helped create a division between workers and the poor that allowed for the 'moralisation of poverty'. Evangelicals believed there were two categories of pauper. The first was the deserving - the aged, ill, widowed or deserted families. The second, the

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undeserving, were the 'idle, indolent and immoral' able-bodied poor. They were immoral because they did not have habits of industry, thrift, abstemiousness and self-help.B7 Then there were their children:

Education, industrial training and religious instruction were the means to moral reform, best achieved in the enclosed environment ofan institution. There ... children could be isolated from the urban squalor that bred indolence andplaced underinfluences for moral improvement. 88

2.15.3 Attitudes in the New Colony

These attitudes transferred to the colony and were applied to the convicts and their children. One example was the early concern over orphan girls on the streets and the fear they would tum to prostitution. The outcome was the Female Orphans Asylum established in 1801 and administered by a committee of colonists.B9

As the number of freed and free people increased, the care of those in need again became an issue, but any idea of legislating for a right to poor relief was rejected. 90 In spite of that, the institutions which were established by philanthropic, prominent colonialists and clergy, relied primarily on government finance.

2.15.4 The Exclusion of the Undeserving Poor

One reason private charity was preferred to poor reliefwas'the need to exclude the 'undeserving'. Garton demonstrates how successfully this was felt to be done where a charitable institution used a subscription system. First, the subscription was set at a price which created an effective social exclusiveness. Then, the subscriber could participate in deciding who should be on the governing body and could recommend a person or persons for assistance or admission to an institution. Consequently like-minded people made the decisions and only those judged by the individual subscriber to be worthy received help.91

2.15.5 The Care of Children in the Colony

The Female (1801) and Male Orphan (1816) Schools were representative of the form of institutional care which would continue until later in the century. The children were 'isolated from immoral and evil influences'. They slept in dormitories, wore a uniform and ate a healthy but routine diet. They acquired some education and working skills, then were apprenticed out. Control and management of the two orphan schools was transferred to the (Anglican) Church and Schools Corporation in 1826.

The Female School of Industry for 'neglected' girls opened in 1826 and was the first totally independent institution in the colony. It was limited to twenty girls, supported by subscribers and controlled by a voluntary Ladies Committee, women of significant social position.92

In 1836, plans commenced for a Roman Catholic Orphan School and in 1849, the Male and Female Orphan Schools were united as the Protestant Orphan School.

A child could be admitted to an Orphan School if both parents or its father were dead.

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2.15.6 Children on the Streets

Much of what was said about the children on the streets of Sydney equated them with parents who were unfit to care for them. Here were the 'able-bodied poor without habits of industry, thrift, abstemiousness and self-help'. The immoral poor. :7 .,

More recent analysts define the situation in terms of unemployment, the dislocation caused by the discovery of gold first in California then in the colonies and in the controlling desires of the emerging middle class. There was also the youthfulness of the colony. Without extended family or social support, family units were vulnerable whether the parents were irresponsible, criminal or miscalculating in the organisation of their lives. There was a certain irony in the fact that parents who demonstrated 'self-help' by trying to ; '.". remove their children from 'Randwick when old enough to work, were accused of exploiting the institution.

Unemployment was not a phenomenon new to Sydney in 1852. As a port, it was the place to which im(l1jgrants came and from which some were loathe to leave, though unemployed, for the unknown country of the.,jnterior. As the major city of the colony, anyone without a job was likely to gravitate there. There were the under-employed, the seasonal or casual workers. Also, some men had jobs away from Sydney which left wives and children financially insecure. There were families who needed the earnings of their children.

But whatever the situation which had previously existed - and Ramsland talks of a 'culture of poverty' developing during the 1840s and 1850S93 - there was greater dislocation caused by the gold rush, higher ,. prices; ·men leaving their families in Sydney, many returning with neither gold nor money. Although for 'some·that was also a convenient social diagnosis, "Gold", Ramsland has written, "had temporarily replaced alcohol as the reason given by the moral improvers for the distress of the perishing classes".94

The visible activities of the juvenile street culture which caused so much concern in the early 1850s has been summarised by Ramsland:

street-selling, begging, pickpocketing, and collecting scrap foods from the city markets and whaNes. Some ofthe oldergirls became prostitutes in order to survive andsome ofthe boys ofvarious ages became street sellers ofnewspapers, fried seafoods, flowers, fruit and matches. Many children operated in gangs; others fended for themselves ortheiryoungerbrothers orsisters. Some were accompanied bydestitute mothers who had tumed to streetprostitution; others were completely alone and abandoned.

They frequented the main thoroughfares, the alleys, back lanes andstreets ofthe city. In the colder months they found some warmth bysleeping near the brick kilns on Brickfield Hill, in the market buildings, in deserted houses, in the under-framework ofthe whaNes, orin the horse and bullock stables.95

Garton speaks of one area, the Rocks, as the centre of 'an informal economy' where the unemployed, beggars, waifs and the destitute could make a living. In addition to theft and prostitution there was, 'employment running errands for pUblicans and sly-grog sellers, rowing boats for others to rob ships moored in the harbour, gambling or minding contraband for local "fences".96

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There may well have been other children who were on the streets for company or to play games.. In July 1853, Police Superintendent McLerie appeared a second time before the Select Committee on Destitute Children. Speaking in criticism, he referred to, "the number of children I see at all hours of the day idling about, playing marbles".97 Perhaps for others, the only alternative was the confined areas in which they lived.

Certainly the police inspectors who gave evidence to the Select Committee some months earlier were more relaxed about the lives of the people living in the parishes they policed than Police Superintendent McLerie or Police Magistrate Dowling.98

The Select Committee resulted from a bill preseoted to the Legislative Council in June 1852, 'for the relief of destitute children and the prevention of juvenile delinquency'. The Committee concluded that because of the new asylum and the public support it was receiving, there was no need for new government institutions. Henry Grattan Douglass and George Alien, two initiators of the Asylum, were members of the Select Committee.99

2.15.7 The Philanthropists

Henry Grattan Douglass (Magistrate, Doctor of Medicine, Philanthropist, later MLC) initiated a meeting of those who shared his concern early in" 1852. The small group consisted of George Alien, MLC, Solicitor, Methodist; Assistant Commissary-General Owen; Roman Catholic Archdeacon McEnroe; Thomas Cowlishaw of mercantile and shipping interests and Sydney alderman for an unresearched period; Police Superintendent John McLerie and Rev. Alfred Stephen, Anglican and eldest son of·Chief Justice Sir Alfred Stephen.

2.15.8 Funding for the Asylum

Private funding was raised through annual subscriptions or by larger payments which gave the donor significant status. The Society also received bequests and donations. The institution at Randwick was possible only because of a substantial amount left to the Society by Dr. Alexander Cuthill, honorary surgeon/medical officer of the asylum. Money for the hospital had been a gift from the visiting Irish singer Catherine Hayes after whom the hospital was named.

After the move to Randwick, there was also govemment funding which consisted of a substantial yearly subsidy and the cost of maintaining the children transferred from the Benevolent Asylum. lOo

2.15.9 The Institution

The establishment at Randwick ultimately had the capacity to accommodate and care for a thousand children. The design of a building is representative of a number of things - need, philosophy, cost, fashiol'1. For the Asylum, the need was to house and care for the largest number of children in the most economical way. The result was an establishment which would later be labelled as exemplifying the 'barrack system'.

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Barracks were an eighteenth-eentury dev~lopment for the accommodation of soldiers who previously had been billeted with householders. It was an idea taken up by othE;lrs as populations grew and cities increased in size. It was a means of regimenting (another military word) those who lived there and an economic way of housing, feeding and controlling large numbers of people.

The barracks were the precursor of establishments from prisons to boarding schools.

2.15.10 The Children in the Asylum

No detailed study has been done of the circumstance of all the children who passed through the Asylum. .- The Registers contain only the one or two sentences necessary to justify admission, although for children transferred from the Benevolent Asylum there is more information in those records. Letters written from the country to the Colonial Secretary requesting the admission of a child give some information.

Not all parents accepted the removal of their child. In the early days of the Asylum - perhaps before the Society had legal authority over the children - there were attempts by parents to get their child back. John Edhouse was Master of the Asylum in 1852 and gave evidence before the Select Committee. He was a~ked, "Is there any disposition on the part of the parents to get their children out of the Institution?", to which he replied, 'Whenever they are drunk they come up and endeavour to get their children away; I try to persuade them to go away quietly, but they abuse me at a tremendous rate".101

Canpn Stephen also gave evidence and was asked if the asylum had power to keep the children there. He replied:

No, but we have managed to do it. In several instances parents have tried to get out their children, but they have neverbeen able to do ityet, except with consent ofthe House Committee. 102

2.15.11 Circumstance of-the Parents

Of those buried in the Cemetery over the twenty-eight year period, most admissions related to the death, desertion or absence of one parent, sometimes with the remaining parent going into service and therefore unable physically, to have the child with them. For some, a parent or parents were in gaol, (one was the child of a 'noted bushranger, other crimes ranged from horsestealing to parents who caused the death of their infant). One had been deserted by her parents after which her uncle had attempted (Randwick record) or succeeded (Benevolent Asylum records) in raping her.

A small number had one parent in the lunatic asylum or infirmary or had been left with a third person who could no longer care for them. One had been totally abandoned, she had been found in th~ bush at the Manning when only a few hours old. For one boy, the promise of a new life in New South Wales proved not to be - his father died at the Quarantine Station and his mother, with an infant, could not support him. A small number of entries specifically stated that the father was in Califomia (2), Sofala (3), New Zealand (4), or a digger (1). The father of one boy was a sailor and had gone to England.

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2.15.12 Who Were the Children?

The Asylum Registers do not specifically identify any of the children buried in the Cemetery as of Aboriginal parentage,. although given the limited knowledge with which it often worked, the possibility cannot be dismissed. It is also important to remember that the description 'Native of the Colony' in records does not indicate an Aboriginal child but rather a person who was born in New South Wales.

The circumstances of the children acc.epted into Randwick awaits detailed analysis. For instance, criticisms which developed in the 1870s that the asylum had not fulfilled the original intention may have been legitimate, they may have been a philosophical denial of a different but genuine need, or they may have demonstrated a failure to realise how the 'original' need was no longer demonstrated on the streets but was either hidden within the family or had spread across the state.

Two of the founding men believed the asylum had not fulfilled its original intention. Captain McLerie said in 1873:

I am one ofthe original foundelS ofthat institution . .. I do not know what the reasons of the othelS for withdrawing from itmay have been, but mine were that the original objects ofthe institution were not carried out. 103

The second man, still very much involved, was- Canon Stephen.104 One of the occasions on wliich he expressed this opinion was the 1882 annual meeting. He referred to a letter which had appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald about the problem of larrikinism. The writer had urged that, "the children of parents who by reason of drunken habits, or other evil causes, neglected their duty, and allowed their offspring to run about the streets as waifs and strays, should, before their evil habits had become crystallised, be put in some institution where they could be carefully watched and trained". Stephen concluded:

Well, that suggestion, admirable as it was, was afterall only the original intention ofthe foundelS ofthe Randwick Asylum. How ithaddrifted away from its moorings it was impossible for him to explain. 105

The matter was also raised during the 1873-74 Inquiry into Public Charities. The Committee said in their report that they believed, both as a result of the evidence and from their own knowledge, that the Asylum had apparently become 'a place into which parents can get their children by simply making out a case for charitable relief.' It had not been the intention of the legislature nor, they believed, the intention of the founders of the Society to create an institution 'which so administered must inevitably tend to create a spirit of pauperism, founded upon gross neglect of parental duty:106

A Board of Inquiry into the Asylum in 1876, accepted that the increased vigilance of the house committee had considerably 'obviated the abuse'.107

A related concern, expressed about Randwick and other institutions, was that clergymen should not be involved in deciding who should be accepted. It was believed they were vulnerable to persuasion or the desire to proselytise and consequently would recommend or admit children who did not meet the requirements.

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A high percentage of those received were 'state' children from the Benevolent Asylum. Children had been accepted from there at the beginning but later a more formal arrangement was incorporated into the by­ laws. The asylum would accept children between the ages of three (later four) and ten deemed by the asylum medical officer to be free of any infectious disease.1oB The cost of maintaining them was met by ""~ govemment.

Although the only requirements for accepting children from the Benevolent Asylum were health.Rnd age, the criticisms of inappropriate admissions appeared to be made only of children accepted individually into the Asylum.

2.15.13 Children from the Country

One person present at the 1877 annual meeting said, rightly or wrongly, that most of the children at Randwick were from the country.109 Certainly some were. Those buried in the Asylum Cemetery included seventeen children from Eden, Goulbum, Singleton, Braidwood, Albury, Wagga, Grafton, Kiandra, Wollongong, Sofala, Dubbo and Maitland. Of the seventeen, thirteen had siblings in the Asylum.

2.15.14 AHealthy Environment

Decisions made by the directors in 1875 and 1879 indicate how the perception of Randwick as a healthy environment had changed in twenty years. In 1875, a number of the most delicate of the children spent .thre~.,months convalescing at Richmond. Four years later a number of children with ophthalmia went there j., to recover. 110 Then, for three years in the 1880s, the Society leased a cottage at Minto for the most delicately constituted of the children.111

2.15.15 Poverty and Pride

It was said that a parent or parents were happy for their child to be at Randwick because it was not a govemment institution.

2.15.16 The Treatment of the Children

This is a complex subject which would require further research. The possible ill-treatment of asylum children became a matter of govemmental concem in the 1870s. Any analysis would need to include consideration of:

1. The differences which occurred between members of the board of management.

2. The fact that a decision made at one meeting could be reversed the following week because different members were in attendance.

3. The question of the ·regularity with which board members actually visited the Asylum.

4. Possible animosity between some board members and the house committee responsible for the day to day running of the Asylum.

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5. The religious differences amongst board members and the effect these had on-the daily routine of the Asylum.

6. The extended illness of one Superintendent and the detrimental effect of this on the day-to-day running of the institution.

7. The number and quality of the staff and the expectations of their daily responsibilities.

8. The question of whether the Asylum was 'workable' as it changed from a place predominantly for apprenticeship training to a conventional institution for the care of children.

9. The economics of administering an institution of that size - between eight and nine hundred children in 1871.

10. Whether corporal punishment in the Asylum reflected or varied from that practised in the larger community.

11. The identity of the person or people mentioned by the Inspector of Public Charities in December 1876. In writing about children absconding from the Asylum, he referred to the 'injudicious and misapplied sympathy of certain persons in Sydney.112

12. If judgements about the Asylum were influenced by the growing interest in the system of boarding out children rather than caring for them in institutions.

Children Who Absconded A number of children 'escaped' from the institution, but whether that was because of ill-treatment, boredom, a desire for adventure or a wish to retum to their family is a matter for conjecture - although where they were found would give some indication. Further research might provide answers.

A police constable stationed at Randwick told a Board of Inquiry in 1876 of regular complaints about the escapades of asylum boys. These were generally concemed with such things as the theft of fowls and garden produce, also of 'mischievous destruction'. The Asylum appeared to have a policy of non­ cooperation under such circumstances, although on one occasion it paid compensation for damage. 113

During one escapade in 1876, a boy drowned in a nearby quarry waterhole after being pushed by a second child. The boys were able to get through the fence which separated the waterhole from the Asylum. 114

An episode in 1879 involved twenty-five boys who left the Asylum, but were retumed by the police in the middle of the night. The outcome was the setting up of a Select Committee to inquire into the management of the Asylum and the system of boarding-out destitute children. The report of the Committee was critical of the punishment the boys received, stating that there was no evidence they 'acted from any motive other than a wild boyish desire under vicious guidance to escape from restraint'.115

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Physical Punishment

In the 1870s, a Board of Inquiry (1875/76) and the Select Committee (1879/80) each inquired into the management of the Asylum and the issue of physical punishment. Evidence to the first inquiry indicated that some children had been disciplined by being hit with either a fist or a stick. But it was also obvious that the mechanism for finding and reporting any physical injury or mark did not work. Neither the person who routinely inspected the chil<;lren or other staff members in a position to see injuries, reported any, suggesting ignorance of the rules or collusion. The Board of Inquiry confirmed that there had been iII­ treatment of children and criticised the absence of clear rules on the matter of corporal punishment.116

The deaths of two boys in May, 1875 were linked to being hit with a broom handle by a female attendant. However, the visiting surgeon of the Asylum stated that when he saw the first boy he was 'in a state of coma and showing evident symptoms of effusion on the brain' and his diagnosis was 'meningitis (sic) with effusion'. The doctor acknowledged that this disease could originate from a blow, but did not believe it had in this instance because he found no external marks on the body nor a depression of the skull. 117

At th~'second death a week later, the visiting surgeon called in a consulting physician, but neither man found evidence of a blow of any kind on the body of either child.118

2.15.17 Other Institutions for Children

The people associated with the Randwick Asylum were not the only residents of Sydney concerned for the well-being of the children. In 1860, people described elsewhere as 'a group of earnest Protestant laymen and Anglican Clergy of evangelical persuasion' established the Sussex Street Ragged and Industrial School for neglected and impoverished children. 119 Then, in the early 1870s, Sydney Magistrate. D.C.F. Scott, worried at the number of young girls appearing before him at the Central Police Court, initiated what became the Usgar Training School.120

The Protestant and Roman Catholic Orphan Schools and the Female School of Industry continued.

There was also pressure on the NSW government to do something, particularly as there had been two government inquiries into poverty and child destitution in the 1850s. In 1866, two pieces of legislation were passed, An Act for the relief of Destitute children and an Act to Establish Juvenile Reformatories. The following year the government established a nautical school on the Vemon for boys and the Girls' Industrial School at Newcastle.121

2.15.18 The System of Boarding-Out

Although the idea of boarding out children was introduced in the 1870s, it had in fact been used in the colony in a very small way in 1799 when plans for a residential orphan school were delayed. Several children were placed with families in return for an additional ration. But there were critics. Samuel Marsden, f<;>r instance, said that the scheme was an extravagant waste of resources, a pUblic building would be more

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economical. Such an institution would ensure that destitute and neglected children would be 'brought up in the principles of morality and industry'.122

As the Nineteenth Century progressed, concern was expressed about the institutional care of children, in part because of instances of ill-treatment or because of the standards under which the children lived. The alternative promoted was that of boarding individual children with suitable families of their own class. It was a system in use in Europe and Britain.

This was a matter occupying South Australians Emily.Clark and Catherine Helen Spence. Clark's English cousins, philanthropists Florence and Rosamond Hill were also advocates of the alternative. In 1873, the Hill sisters visited Australia and were not impressed with its institutions. A visit to Randwick was included in their book What We Sawin Australia. After specific criticisms they concluded:

From ourown observation we are inclinedto believe the children are as wellbrought up as is practicable with such large numbers where no attemptis made to break them into groups. Butno system can counteract the evils inseparable from an institution where, as atRandwick, severalhundreds are massedtogether. 123

The sisters also gave evidence to the Public Charities Commission and, Ramsland believes, significantly influenced its findings. 124

After several years of pressure, legislation was passed. in 1881 and the State Children's Relief Board created to establish a boarding-out policy for children in government orphanages and industrial schools.125 Officers were appointed and given the power to remove 'state' children from institutions and place them with an appropriate family.

By now the Randwick Asylum had been under pressure for some years. The 1873-74 Royal Commission into public charities had included it in criticisms of the 'barrack system'. The Asylum was the subject of a government inquiry in 1876 and again during 1879-80.126

The directors made some attempts to respond to the criticisms. In 1876, for instance, the dormitories were divided into smaller units, the children of each unit ate meals as a group and with ~eparate attendants.127 The play-grounds were increased in size.128 The children were supervised by the same attendants outside school hours and were also allowed to play, under supervision, in the open areas of asylum land. 129

The directors continued to believe in the worthiness of their institution:

The ColonialSecretary recently intimateda desire to withdraw, as required. .. certain ofthe State children from the RandwickAsylum, for the purpose ofboarding them out underthe auspices ofthe State Children's ReliefBoard, asis done from the Orphan Schools andBenevolentAsylum. The Randwick Society does not however, appeardisposed to accede to the wishes ofthe Govemmentin this matter. . .'30

The Society lost the battle. Two years later, in 1885, the government made its last financial payment and in the following year removed the remaining 'state' children from Randwick.

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2.15.19 Care for the Children of the Respectable

The directors believed there was still a place for the asylum because there were many widowers and 'respectable' people needing help through poverty, sickness or infirmity. Yearly they appealed for donations and expressed regret that they had been unable to accept all children for whom admission had been sought. .'

The Illustrated Sydney News visited the Asylum in April 1890. By this year, the children of the streets obviously appeared less threatening. The article concluded:

-- >~. We only wish itwere possible [forthe asylum]to take more ofthe POO!; hunglYr dirty, andtiredlittle waifs and strays that we daily anc{ unfortunately, nightly, see in the streets ofthe city. 131

During 1894 with expenditure exceeding income, salaries and wages were cut, -some officials were dismissed and there was a general reorganisation of the institution. Again, children had to be refused admission.132

The Asylum continued caring for children, trying to increase its finanCial base, endeavouring to find an alternate use for those parts of the institution which were not needed. In 1915 and 1916, the decision was m~de for it when the buildings, were requisitioned for a military hospital and ownership of the land and property re-vested in tile Crown.

2.15~20 Economic Factors in the Change

Neither the boarding-out system nor criticisms of the 'barrack system' were new, van Krieken writes.133 What made the change possible in New South Wales in the 1870s and 1880s was that by then there were sufficient working class families in a sound economic position to care for the children.134

There was a second associated change. This was a move away from the traditional partnership of government finance and philanthropic administration, to that of government finance and government control. At the same time, privately funded charities continued or commenced, caring for children for short or longer periods.

2.15.21 AChange of Metaphor

In a larger context, the change was not only about how best to care for 'state' children but part of a change in the perception of human behaviour and human need:

The 19th centuryidealofthe asylum hadundergone a radical change bythe early20th century. Institutions were increasinglyseen bydoctors asplaces forthe hereditarily unfit the deficient orthe incurable, while those groups who were thought capable ofimprovement were sent to homes, clinics, schools orhospitals for treatmentandeducation. The oldlanguage ofmoralrefonn andthe dangerous classes was being supplantedbya newone ofmedicine, disease andthe deficient classes. 135

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2.16 Historical Research The major concerns of the historical research were:

• The Cemetery;

• The children buried in the cemetery;

• Coffins materials;

• The Asylum;

• The site after the closure of the Asylum.

The greater proportion of records searched were those of either State or Commonwealth Governments, complemented by other sources appropriate to each subject and in some instances, by telephone calls.

2.16.1 The Cemetery

• The establishment of the Cemetery.

• Donations or advice given by nurserymen or the Botanic Gardens.

• Evidence of permission to exhume and re-inter in 1903.

• Whether the remains of any children had been removed and where they had been re-interred.

• The circumstance of the discovery of the Cemetery.

Records searched:

• Colonial Secretary/Chief Secretary correspondence;

• Premier's Department;

• Lands Department;

• Attorney General and Justice;

• Department of Public Health;

• Registrar General;

• Government Architect;

• Department of Public Works;

• Royal Botanic Gardens Library for 1860s donations;

• Blacket's plans for identification of small structure within Cemetery.

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2.16.2 Children

•A profile of each child buried in the Cemetery.

• Details of their medical and dental care and diet.

• Colonial comparison.

Records searched:

• Asylum Registers;

•. Death Certificates;

_. Benevolent Asylum records;

• Colonial Secretary's correspondence;

• papers of honorary medical officers and dentists for dental or medical records;

• published studies of physical characteristics of NSW children c1860-1900;

• Dental Board of New South Wales.

After the names had been extracted from the Asylum Registers, the death certificates were obtained by Professional Genealogist Jan Worthington.

2.16.3 Coffin Materials

• Comparison, coffins in general use and those exhumed

Records searched:

• Devonshire Street Cemetery Board. Reports on the Restoration of Graves;

• Public Works Department;

• Bonds and Agreements regarding coffins to be supplied to government institutions (PWD);

• Supreme Court Bankruptcy Files;

• surviving publications or papers of cabinet makers, timber merchants, undertakers;

• advertisements for undertakers, cabinet makers, timber merchants;

• Sands Directories;

• Government Gazettes for notices regarding tenders for coffins;

•. Telephone calls to a variety of knowledgeable people;

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• trade and general papers for advertisements.

2.16.4 The Asylum

•A profile of the Asylum.

Records searched:

• Colonial Secretary's correspondence;

• Child Welfare Department;

• Social Welfare Department;

• State Children's Relief Board;

• Surveyor General;

• Government Printing Office photographs;

• Annual Reports of the Society;

• Newspaper reports of some monthly board meetings of the Society;

• Parliamentary Inquiries and Select Committees;

• Personal papers of various men associated with the Asylum;

• Published articles and publications;

• maps and plans of the area.

2.16.5 The Site After the Closure of the'Asylum

• Activity over the site of the Cemetery.

Records searched:

• Annual Reports, New South Wales Department of Public Health;

• Australian Archives.

Preliminary research and research of files held in New South Wales was done by Beverley Johnson but the greater number of the records held in Canberra and Melbourne were searched by Consulting Historian Brendan O'Keefe who has expertise in researching military records.

A considerable number of files were searched without benefit because it was not known from the summary title what information they might contain. Some had not been used by a researcher before and were identified only as 'Randwick'. Specifications were too general to indicate anything useful, and there were

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instances of a file being devoted to the discussion of arid planning for a particular project, without any clear indication as to whether the work was carried out.

No archival records - including those of the Department of Defence, gave any indication of what happened to the remains of the children.

2.16.6 Archives and Libraries Consulted

Australian Archives

New South Wales State Archives

Mitchell Ubrary

Sydney City Council Archives

Defence Centre Sydney Ubrary

Department of School Education Ubrary

Randwick and District Historical Society

SocietY of Genealogists

Local Studies Section, Bowen Ubrary, Randwick City Ubrary Service

Local History Section, Waverley Ubrary

2.16.7 Research

Beverley Johnson, Project Historian

Brendan O'Keefe, Consulting Historian

J~n Worthington, Professional Genealogist

2.17 The Asylum The Randwick Asylum for the Relief of Destitute Children was the largest and most prominent institution for the care of children in New South Wales. Ultimately it had the capacity to accommodate one thousand children, had a receiving house and hospital, a superintendent's house, four employee cottages,. a farm overseer's dwelling and an office in the city.

It was a private institution initiated in 1852 by philanthropic men sufficiently influential to gain the patronage of the Govemor-General of the colony and the Colonial Secretary. It received funding from both private individuals and govemment.

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The asylum was for children whose parents were judged unfit to care for them or who had abandoned their offspring, children who did not qualify for an Orphan School. They were to be given an education, a basic training and at an appropriate age were apprenticed to subscribers to the Society.

When governmental policy changed from institutional care to the practice of boarding children with suitable families of their own class, the directors adjusted their attention to the 'deserving' poor but found it very difficult to function without government money. The buildings were resumed by the Department of Defence in 1915 for use as a military hospital and the property and bUildings were re-vested in the Crown in 1916.

2.18 The Cemetery Documentary information concerning the Cemetery is limited. Two related plans from 1890 and 1891 shows a structure within it, the outline of which indicates architectural design.

A description from 1890 of a 'prettily-planted shady-looking plot railed off' implies a place designed and cared for. This is to be expected, for every aspect of the asylum would have been ordered. It was a showpiece and the various 'official' visitors included three members of the British royal family. Also the directorial and pastoral invo.lvement of clergymen would have ensured that all burial conventions were observed and maintained.

The first burial took place in 1863 and the last in 1891. It seems likely there were neither headstones nor crosses there for there would have been few visitors.

When the directors tried to raise money by selling unused asylum land, permission was gained to re-inter the. remains but the auction was a failure and the exhumations never occurred. In .1918, the remains of one child were unearthed during excavation work prior to the construction of temporary huts for the military hospital. After discussions it was decided that the work would proceed and as the remains of the children were exposed they would be removed, held and later buried in one grave at the Randwick General Cemetery. What actually happened is not known.

The temporary hospital huts or wards were built later in 1918 with several on the cemetery area. The huts were removed during 1993/94.

2.19 The Philosophy Underlying the Asylum The philosophy underlying the Asylum was one transferred to the new colony. It grew out of eighteenth­ century BritiSh social and economic changes which resulted in a 'moralisation' of poverty. It was argued that poverty amongst the able-bodied was not an economic state but brought about by a preference for indolence. Also, that the children of such people held the same attitude and needed to be separated from their parents and taught to become hard-working, moral, upright human beings. This was best done within the 'enclosed environment' of an institution. There was an associated concern to exclude the 'undeserving'

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and this was best achieved if the institution was administered and monitored by philanthropic members of society.

This institutional system -later termed the 'barrack system' - was used for the first Orphan School in 1801 and continued through the century. _.,-

The alternate idea of boarding children with families of their own class developed credibility during the 1870s, and in 1881 the government legislated to introduce the system. Although neither the new philosophy nor criticisms of the previous system were new in European terms, it became a possible alternative in New South Wales only when there were sufficient families who could care for the children. A related change was that the new legislation allowed for govemment control rather than philanthropic administration. - The ultimate change came in the Twentieth Century when an asylum was seen only as a place of care. Homes, clinics, schools or hospitals, etc. became the means of changing perceived shortcomings in -human behaviour.

2.20 Historical Research The were three major concerns for the historical research. The first was for physical, philosophical and burial-information concerning the Cemetery together with evidence of coffin timbers in use over the period. Also of any changes over the site after the closure of the Asylum.

The second area of research was to create a data base of information about the children buried in the Cemetery, existing dental or medical records and to accumulate any studies of children in the colony c1860-1900.

The third requirement was to place the Asylum within the social and economic context of the colony.

The major sources used were the files of govemment departments - particularly the correspondence files of. the Colonial Secretary - and records of the Benevolent Asylum. Next in importance were the ar.mual reports of the Asylum and other reports published in newspapers. Related information was sought through specific publications and archival records, including maps, plans and pictures. These were supplemented by telephone calls.

Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney Plants Contributed

10 January 1852 - 31 August 1869

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DeathstllDl Year Asylum Register: Deaths Daily average Children ~ fJ:llIIiImlII (see below) AIIIi-10 ages (5 Predicted death rate x vearsoansi avel'll!lenos. 1863 13 '365 35.6 4.8 1.8 - 1864 8 '427 18.7 4.8 2.0 1865 5 '552 9.1 4.8 2.6 1866 11 '642 17.1 4.8 3.1 1867 78 646 120.7 4.8 3.1 1866 11 692 15.9 4.8 3.3 1869 3 735 4.1 4.8 3.5 1870 2 794 2.5 4.8 3.8 1871 3 846 3.5 4.8 4.1 - 1872 4 835 4.8 • 4.8 4.0 1873 0 776 0.0 4.8 3.7 1874 4 730 5.5 4.8 3.5 1875 17 618 27.5 4.8 3.0 1876 6 589 10.2 1877 3 497 6.0 1878 4 585 6.8 1879 4 622 6.4 3.1 1.9 1880 3 656 4.6 3.1 2.0 1881 3 662 4.5 3.1 2.1 1882 2 672 3.0 3.1 2.1 1883 2 612 3.3 3.1 1.9 1884 0 460 0.0 3.6 1.7 , 1885 0 279 0.0 3.6 1.0 1886 0 240 0.0 3.6 0.9 1887 1 272 3.7 3.6 1.0 1888 0 252 0.0 3.6 0.9 1889 0 229 0.0 3.4 0.8 1890 0 216 0.0 3.4 0.7 1891 1 183 5.5 3.4 0.6

Total: 188 16 Period 1879-91 17.5 'Bold numbers are year end only. [Actual] [Predicted from table] 159 Period 1863-75 41.6 [Actual] [Predicted from table] Ratios for 1879-91 are from 'Year Book of NSW, 1904,p668 During 1879-1891 the Asylum deaths were 16. Prediction from Year Book ratios is 17.5. There is no statistically significant deviation. Note that the prediction is based on all NSW. Ratios for 1860-75 NSW from 'Australians Historical Statistics', 1988, p61 During 1864-1874 ~ess '66-68] Asylum deaths were 29. Ratio predicted from table 27.3. The years 1866-8 & 1875 appear anomolous, but 'pre-1870 data is believed incomplete'. If these broad-brush statistics are right, health management in epidemics was below average, otherwise the death rate appears to be close to average for the 5-10 age group after 1868. . Figure 2.9 Death rate comparison - Asylum and NSW average.

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4 Lophostemon australis in pots 1 Acmena elliptica in pots 1 Acmena floribunda in pots 1 Elaeocarpus sp. in pots 2 Olea europea in pots 3 Moreton Bay figs in pots 3 Jambosa vulgaris in pots 3 loquats in pots 2 Laurus camphora in pots 3 Pinus excelsa in pots - . 1 Pinus longifolia in pots 2 Pinus lambertiana in pots 2 Cupressus pendula in pots 1 Cupressus macrocarpa in pots 2 Thuja sp. (NewZealand) in pots 4 Pinuspinea in pots 4 Cytissus (sic) 2 Hibiscus 1 Poinsettia (sic) pulcherdma 1 Lasthenia indica , 4 Cupania australis 9 Moreton Bay chestnut 5 Erythrina speciosa 4 Poplarpyramidalis 2 Helianthus sp. 2 Rhamnus alatemus 12 Pittosporum undulatum Figure 2.103 August 1863 - List of plants sent to the Destitute Asylum Randwlck.

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- 6 Rcus macrophylla 6 Brachychiton acerifolia 2 Araucaria cookii 10 Araucaria excelsa 4 Cupania xylocarpa 4 Laurus ceylonica 6 Araucaria bidwillii 6 Podocarpus spinulosus 4 Azaleas 2 Stenocarpus cunninghamii - . 4 Tetranthera ferruginea 6 Cypress " 2 Etythrina camdenii 2 Erythrina blakii 4 Erythrina speciosa 2 Hibiscus double white 2 Poincettia (sic) pulcherrima 2 Lavaestraemia (sic) indica [Lagerstroemia indica] 3 Nerium splendens 2 Tecoma velutina , 6 Abrothammus (sic) elegans [Habrothamnus elegans] 6 Hibiscus camdenii . Figure 2.11 23 June 1865 List of plants sent to the Randwlck Asylum

1 Biota meldensis 1 Cupressus pendula 1 Aralia reticulata 1 Annona cherimolia . 1 Araucaria cunninghamii 1 Corynocarpus laevigata 1 Baloghia lucida 2 Ficus ferruginea 1 Diploglottis cunninghamii Figure 2.12 13 June 1867 Sent to the Randwick Asylum.

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1 Cocus (sic) plumosus 1 Cryptocarya ovalifolia 1 Cupania xylocarpa 1 Thuja orientalis 1 Stenocarpus cunninghamii ..-- ,- 1 Dammara sp.? (sic) New Caledonia 1 Dacrydium cupressiformis 2 Araucaria bidwillii 1 Jambosa australis 4 Araucaria excelsa - 2 ' Tamarixgallica 3 Aloysia citriodora 2 Poinsettia pulcherrima 1 Abutilon venustum 1 Labumum 1 Nerium splendens

1 ~, Rcus sp.? (sic) 1 Erythrina speciosa 2 Duranta ellisia 1 Lagerstroemia ovalifolia 1 Salix cuprea 2 Justicia aurea 1 Ligustrum sp.? (sic) 2 Spiraea corymbosa 2 Hibiscus ?enii[letters notclear] 2 Habrothamnus elegans 1 Hibiscus mutabilis 1 Vemonia arborescens 6 Roses 2 Fuschias (sic) (Source: Royal Botanic Gardens Library)

Figure 2.12 cont'd 13 June 1867 Sent to the Randwick Asylum.

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2.21 Endnotes

1 Quoted in Joseph Coulter, RandwickAsylum, p.1. 2 'An Act to incorporate and otherwise promote the objects of The Society for the Relief of Destitute Children', 23 February 1857. 3 Annual Report for 1855, SydneyMorning Herald (SMH), 31 July 1855, ppA-5. 4 Report from the Select Committee on the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, 1879-80, Minutes of Evidence, question 599. 5 Simeon Pearce, ibid, question 599. 6 'The Charitable Institutions of Sydney' part VIII, SMH, 26 February 1866, p.2. 7 Annual Report for 1858, SMH, 10th February 1859, p.3. 8 Ibid. 9 Annual Report for 1859, SMH, 21 February 1860, p.5. 10 Annual Report for 1860, SMH, 16 January 1861, p.5. 11 Annual Report for 1858, SMH, 10 February 1859, p.3. 12 Annual Report for 1862, SMH, 3 February 1863, p.5. 13 Annual Report for 1865, SMH, 25 January 1866, p.5. 14 Annual Report for 1866, SMH, 1 February 1867, p.5. 15 Annual ~eport for 1873, SMH, 30 January 1874, p.3. 16 Annual Report for 1869, SMH, 26 January 1870, p.5. .. 17 'The RandwickAsylum', ISM, 17 April 1890, p.21. 18 Medical Report for 1867 in Joseph Coulter, RandwickAsylum, p.23. 19 Annual Report for 1873, SMH, 30 January 1874, p.3. 20 Annual Report for 1869, SMH, 26 January 1870, p.5. 21 Annual Report for 1871, SMH, 30 January 1872, p.3. 22 Second Report of the Commission Appointed to Inquire Into and Report Upon the Working and Management ofthe Public Charities ofthe Colony, 1873-1874, Minutes of Evidence, question 1734. 23 Annual Report for 1903, SMH, 27 February 1904, p.7. 24 Report from the Select Committee on Military andNavalHospitalHome Bill, 1915. 25 Child Welfare Miscellaneous File: Closing of Randwick Asylum for Destitute children 1914-1916, AO 9/6152. 26 Joseph Coulter, RandwickAsylum, p.xii. 27 John Ramsland 1984, 'An Anatomy of a Nineteenth Century Child-Saving Institution: The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children', JournalRAHS, 70, 3, p.197. . 28 Annual Report for 1858, SMH, 10 February 1859, p.3. 29 Annual Report for 1862, SMH, 3 February 1863, p.5. 30 J.C. Beaglehole, (ed.), The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768-1771, quoted in Doug Benson & Jocelyn Howell, Taken for Granted, p.94. 31 Doug Benson and Jocelyn Howell, Taken for Granted, p.96. 32 Samuel Tree, market gardener, quoted in W.B. Lynch & FA Larcombe, Randwick 1859-1976, p.14. 33 Brendon O'Keefe, Simeon Pearce's Randwick: Dream andReality, pp.14-15. 34 Affidavit Lewis Gordon, Supreme Court Equity Proceedings, Moore & Ors v Attorney-General, Case No. 1786, AO 3/753. 35 Annual Report for 1864, SMH, 21 January 1865, p.5. 36 Town Clerk to Hon. Secretary 1861, Sydney City Council Archives, Town Clerk Letters Sent, CRS 27/13,61/215. 37 Annual Report for 1865, SMH, 25 January 1866, p.5. 38 Annual Report for 1868, SMH, 1 February 1869, p.2. 39 Report from the Select Committee on Military andNavalHospitalHome Bill, 1915, Minutes of Evidence, question 7.

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40Second Report of the Commission Appointed to Inquire Into and Report Upon the Working and Management of the Public Charities of the Colony, 1873-74, Minutes of Evidence, questions 1766-1771, 1778,1818. 41 Colonial Secretary Special Bundle: Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, AO 5/5229. 42 Annual Report for 1902, SMH, 30 January 1903, p.3. 43 Annual Report for 1861, SMH, 15 January 1862, p.5. 44 Ibid. 45 Annual Report for 1874, SMH, 2 February 1875, pp.2-3. 46 Annual Report for 1876, SMH, 22 April 1877, p.6. 47lnqu.iry into Administration of No.4 Australian Military .General Hospital Randwick, 1917-1918, AA Series MP367/1 Item 50017171. 48 Annual Report for 1865, SMH, 25 January 1866, p.5. 49 Death Certificates and Asylum Registers. 50 Annual Report for 1863, SMH, 5 February 1864, p.5. 51 'The Randwick Asylum', ISN, 17 April 1890, p.21. 52 Letter, Joseph Coulter to Under Secretary, Health Department, 6 May 1918, Chief Secretary's Department, Letters Received 1918, AO 5/7962. 53 R.T.M. Pescott, WR. Guilfoyle, 1840-1912, The MasterofLandscaping. 54 The various Annual Reports. 55 Annual Report for 1862, SMH, 3rd February 1863, p.5. 56 'The Charitable Institutions of Sydney, Part VIII, The Society for the Relief of Destitute Children (continued), SMH, 26 February 1866, p.2. ,57 T.B.U. Sloman, Surveyor, Field Book, Sheet 37, Randwick, December 1891, Sy.dney Water. 58 Entry No.168, Register, Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, State Children's Relief Board, A07/3796. 59 Mark Lyons, 'Joseph George Raphael', Australian Dictionary ofBiography, Volume 6, p.8. 60 New South Wales Colonial Architect's Office Records, Lunatic Asylum, Tarban Creek, 1864-1866, A02/683. 61 Mitchell Library, various Minutes of Benevolent Asylum House Committee. 62 Annual Report for 1903, SMH, 27 February 1904, p.7. 63 Report 'Respecting proposed leasing of lands to Chinese by Directors of Destitute Children's Asylum at Randwick' prepared by the Chief Surveyor, 18 July 1904, Colonial Secretary Special Bundle: Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, AO 5/5229. 64 Letter, J. Coulter to the Attorney General, 22 February 1905, Colonial Secretary Special Bundle: Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, AO 5/5229. 65 Report from the Select Committee on Military andNavalHospitalHome Bill 1915. 66 File Note, W.A.A., 6 June 1918, Chief Secretary's Department, Letters Received 1918, AO 5/7962. 67 T.B. Cooper, Under Secretary, Public Works Department, N.S.W. to the Under Secretary, Department of Public Health, 22 July 1918, AO 5/7962. 68 WK Percival, Town Clerk, Randwick to Under Secretary, Department of Public Health, 21 June 1918, AO 5/7962. 69 File Note, E.B. Harkness, 24 July 1918, AO 5/7962. 70 Arthur Percival, Commonwealth Surveyor-General and Chief Property Officer, 'Department of Works. Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, Minutes of Evidence relating to the ProposedErection of a Repatriation General Hospital at Randwick, New South Wales, 1939, question 104. 71 Lt.-Col. C.L.S. Macintosh, DSO, 'Re-Building Billjim', Remnants from Randwick, No.2, 1919, pp.46­ 47;[ln-house journal by patients]. 72 Land and Survey Branch, Survey of Prince of Wales No.4 Australian General Hospital Randwick NSW, AA Series ST1317/i, Field Book 3076, p.11.

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73 Memorandum to the Secretary, Prime Minister's Department to Premier of New South Wales, Australian Archives Series A458!1, Item AF39417, Randwick Military Hospital. 74 N.R. Mighell, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Public Works, Minutes ofEvidence relating to the Proposed Erection of a Repatriation General Hospital at Randwick, New South Wales, question 1. 75 Ibid. 76 Report ofthe Director-General ofPublic Health, NewSouth Wales forthe year 1927. 77 Report ofthe Director-General ofPublic Health NewSouth Wales forthe year 1929. 78 Report ofthe Director-General ofPublic Health NewSouth Wales forthe years 1931 and 1932. 79 Ibid. 80 Anne Bickford, Cemetery ofDestitute Children's Asylum Randwick nowPOWHospital, December 1994, p.3. 81 Stephen Garton, Out ofLuck, PoorAustralians andSocial Welfare. 82 Ibid., pp.7-9. 83 Ibid., pp.9-10. 84 Ibid., pp.1 0-11. 85 Ibid. 86 Ibid., p.11. 87 Ibid., p.12. 88 Ibid. 89 Ibid., p.19. 90 Ibid., pA3. 91 Ibid., pA4. - 92John Ramsland, Children ofthe BackLanes, pp.20, 21, 48. 93 John Ramsland 1984, 'An Anatomy of a Nineteenth Century Child-Saving Institution: The Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children', Journal RAHS, 70, 3, p.194. 94 Ramsland, Children ofthe BackLanes, p.56. 95 Ibid, p.64. 96 Garton, op. cit., p.37. 97 J. McLerie, Esq., Progress Report from ·the Select Committee on Destitute Children, Minutes of Evidence, 4 July 1853, question 58. 98 Ibid., 1 September 1852, 4 July 1853, questions various. 99 John Ramsland, Children ofthe BackLanes, p.112. 100 Michael Horsburgh March 1977, 'The Randwick Asylum: Organisational Resistance to Social Change', Australian Social Work, 30,1, pp.15-24. 101 John Edhouse, Progress Report from the Select Committee on Destitute Children Minutes of Evidence, 3 September 1852, question 62. 102 A Stephen, Ibid., 4 July 1853, question 7. 103 Capt. McLerie, Second Report of the Commission Appointed to Inquire Into and Report Upon the Working and Management of the Public Charities of the Colony, 1873-1874, Minutes of Evidence, question 7578. 104 Two examples: Annual Report for 1878, SMH, 31 January 1879, p.6; Annual Report for 1882, SMH, 23 January 1883, pA. 105 Annual Report for 1882, SMH, 23 January 1883, pA. 106 Second Report of the Commission Appointed to InqUire Into and Report Upon the Working and Management ofthe Public Charities ofthe Colon~ 1873-1874, p.99. 107 Randwick Asylum Board of Enquiry, Report ofthe Board, p.5. 108 Annual Report for 1858, SMH, 10 February 1859, p.3. 109 J. Hurley, M.L.A. (Hartley), quoted in report of Annual Meeting, SMH, 16 January 1878, p.6. 110 Annual Report for 1875, SMH, 25 April 1876, p.3; Annual Report for 1879, SMH, 20 January 1880, p.6. 111 Annual Report for1883, SMH, 22 January 1884, p.5; Annual Report for 1884, SMH, 2 January 1885, p.9; Annual Report for 1885, SMH, 26 January 1886, pA.

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112Colonial Secretary Letters Received, AO 1/2351, Hugh Robinson, Inspector of Charities to the Colonial Secretary, 12 December 1876, letter 76/9305. 113 RandwickAsylum BoardofInquiry. Report ofthe BoardandMinutes ofEvidence, 1875-76, p16. 114 'Coroner's Inquest At Randwick', SMH, 23 October 1876 p2. 115 Report from the Select Committee on the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children; Together with the Proceedings of the Committee, andMinutes ofEvidence, 1879-80, p3. : 116 RandwickAsylum BoardofInquiry. Report ofthe BoardandMinutes ofEvidence, 1875-76, p5. 117 RandwickAsylum Board ofInquiry. Report ofthe BoardandMinutes ofEvidence, 1875-76, p32. 118 RandwickAsylum BoardofInquiry. Report ofthe BoardandMinutes ofEvidence, 1875-76, p32, 119 Ramsland, J. Children of the back lanes, pp.90-103. 120 Ibid., pp.1 03-1 04. 121 Ramsland, J. Children of the back lanes, pp.116-149. 122 Ibid., p.2. 123 Rosamond and Florence Hill, What We Sawin Australia, p.308. 124 Ramsland, Anatomy ofa Nineteenth Century Child-Saving Institution, p.204. 125 Garton, op. cit., p.92. 126 Second Report of the Commission Appointed to Inquire Into and Report Upon the Working and Management ofthe Public Charities of the Colony, 1873-74; Randwick Asylum Board ofInquiry, Report ofthe Board, 1876; Report from the Select Committee on the Randwick Asylum for Destitute Children, 1879-80. 127 Inspector of Public Charities to Principal Under Secretary, 13 December 1876, Colonial Secretary . Letters Received, AO 1/2351, Letter 76/9305. 128 Annual Report for 1876, SMH, 22 April 1877, p.6. 129 John Ramsland, Children ofthe BackLanes, pp.193-194. 130 Report, Inspector of Public Charities, 1883, quoted in John Ramsland, Children of the Back Lanes, p.195. 131 'The RandwickAsylum',ISN, 17 April 1890, p.21. 132 Annual Report for 1894, SMH, 29 January 1895, p.6. 133 Robert van Krieken 1989, 'Towards 'Good and Useful Men and Women': The State and Childhood in Sydney, 1840-1890', Australian Historical Studies, 93, pp.416-417. 134 Ibid., p.417. .. 135 Garton, op. cit., p.106.

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_ Significance

3.1 Preamble In 1995, Godden Mackay pty Ltd, Heritage Consultants, prepared a 'Statement of Significance' for the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery, on instruction from the (then) South Eastern Sydney Area Health Service.

The 1995 Statement of Significance became the basis for development of a Conservation Policy and, ultimately, for management decisions.

The 1995 Statement of Significance is reproduced below as Section 3.2 of this volume. Relevant sections of the assessment upon which the Statement of Significance is based are provided in Sections 3.3 and 3.4. Section 3.5 outlines ways in which the 1995-96 Archaeological Investigations have affected the significance of the site.

3.2 1995 Statement of Significance The Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery is an item of outstanding cultural significance.

The Cemetery, unlike most burial grounds in Australia, is marked not by monuments or even a developed landscape, but rather by the emotive association of its tragic history and sub-surface physical evidence provided by the remains of the children buried there. The Cemetery consequently has a special sense of place and is held in high esteem by relatives of the deceased, local historians, Aboriginal people, others associated with the Asylum and the later Prince of Wales Hospital and the general community.

The Cemetery has strong historic links with major development and changes regarding child welfare and the late nineteenth-century practise of philanthropy. The Cemetery and the Asylum itself, typify attitudes towards welfare in general, and destitute children in particular, during this period. The operations of the Asylum and the experiences of the children who live there span a crucial period, encompassing moves from the establishment of such institutions by concerned citizens or governments to greater emphasis on wider community care and fostering.

The largest and one of only four known Children's Cemeteries in Australia that are associated exclusively with a welfare institution, the site is a rare research resource. The potential scientific data provided by the remains of this known population of deceased children, from a well documented background, provides a rare, if not unique, physical resource for forensic and other anthropological studies and analysis. As well as this purely scientific research, the individual graves may also provide primary evidence about the lives, (and deaths), of the children that is separate from official reports and accounts - a unique chance for these children to reveal their own story.

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3.3 1995 Assessment· Contextual Discussion 3.3.1 Historic Association

It is no coincidence that the Destitute Children's Asylum, initially established at Ormond House, Paddington and later at Randwick was established in 1852, one year after the discovery of gold. While the reasons for the particular circumstance for each child inmate varies, anumber were the victims of abandonment by at least one parent; gaoled, drunken or absconded to the goldfields.

The establishment of the Asylum itself reflected directly an increasing concern amongst Australian society for social welfare. Private citizens, passionately believing in the benefits of education, moral therapy and self discipline, formed philantl1ropic societies that established benevolent institutions to supplement inadequate government initiatives. The period between the 1830s and 1860s saw a boom in the establishment of such organisations, particularly charitable societies and facilities for the care of children. Of these, one of the largest was the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum which, at the height of its operations in the mid 1870s had more than 700 children. The 1860s saw a period of increasing government interest and intervention. The introduction of industrial school legislation afforded police the power to install children considered to be neglected or delinquent in reformatories. The most famous of these were nautical training ships including the Vemon and Sobraon in Sydney. Social commentator Stephen Garton, writing in Out ofLuck, PoorAustralians andSocial Welfare. comments that:

These pattems ofwork and discipline were common to all types ofreformatories, asylums and schools for children ofthe poorerclasses. In the institution the children could be isolated from the corrupting influences ofstreet life and trained to be self-reliant workelS and domestics. It was the enclosed environment which was the lynch pin ofthe moral reform movement. Institutions were designed to be factories for the production ofgood citizens and workelS. This was a boldphilanthropic vision and one that shaped the endeavoulS ofthose who hoped.to stem the tide ofidleness andpoverty in the colonies1

However, from' the 1860s, philanthropists and reformers began to question the effectiveness of such institutions and argued for greater government intervention. The social theory, which was well established by the turn of the century, was founded on the belief that such assistance was a universal right rather than a benevolent favour to be doled out selectively.. In relation to children, the 1873 Public Charities Royal Commission, chaired by prominent lawyer and reformer William Charles Windeyer, was crucial in addressing the declining asylum standards and instrumental in the establishment of the NSW State Children's Relief Board in 1881. This Board was charged with implementing a boarding-out policy for children. One result was that by the middle of the second decade of the Twentieth Century the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum was closed.

The Asylum, therefore, is a remarkable exemplar, established at the height of the philanthropic movement and belief in large-scale institutionalised children's welfare and, closing following the wide scale implementation of a government-imposed children's relief scheme and boarding-out program.

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In addition, the Asylum has further historic significance through its connection with major historical figures such as Mr Justice Windeyer and his philanthropist wife, Mary Windeyer, the English sisters Florence and Rosamund Hill, noted British child reformers, and Joseph Coulter, the long-standing asylum Superintendent (1886-1916).

3.3.2 Aesthetic Qualities !; As a 1995 landscape element, the site of the cemetery is unremarkable - a barren, sand swept piece of open space, identifiable primarily as the site of a row of early twentieth-century utilitarian buildings, recently demolished. As a historic place it has limited visual qualities and appeal, but can be argued ~o have some non-visual aesthetics through the historic associations which provide a trigger to emotion. The Asylum and Cemetery also have inspirational value as they are the subject of a body of significant published work. However, overall, it is difficult to sustain any substantive argument about major aesthetic qualities of the plac.~.

3.3.3 'Social Significance

Largely as a result of the known, almost infamous, history of the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum, the site of the Cemetery looms large as a place held ir:t high esteem by particular sections of the community.

The Cemetery has special association for the relative~ of the deceased and the relatives, particularly descendants, of former Asylum inmates. Similar values arise for some of those who continue to be associated with the Prince of Wales Hospital. Interest has been expressed by members of local Aboriginal communities concemed with the possibility that some of those buried may be of Aboriginal descent and with a wider social issue of appropriate treatment for buried human remains. These concems are not peculiar to Aboriginal people as many Australians hold death and cemeteries in special reference and regard them as sacrosanct.

More technical interest and esteem is evident in 'the opinions voiced by those with particular research interest: historians, genealogists and physical anthropologists who, with varying degrees of emotion or objectivity, have espoused the potential value or important associations of the place. Wid~r community interest is reflected in the substantial media coverage that the site has already received through the efforts of the ESAHS Public Relations unit, and in its formal listing, (albeit as part of the Prince of Wales Hospital), by the Randwick City Council (in the heritage schedule of the Randwick Local Environmental Plan - item 69), by the National Trust of Australia (NSW), and by the Australian Heritage Commission on the Register of the National Estate.

The public meeting held on April 26th 1995 was also important in establishing and understanding the social value of the Cemetery. The meeting was the primary point at which those who care about the Cemetery strongly expressed the importance of the 'place' itself.

Two other aspects of social value are apparent. Issues of child welfare and child abuse have received prominence over recent years as a contemporary social problem and it may well be the case that current

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levels of interest in the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery and the tragic circumstances of the children who died there, are born from a wider societal guilt or interest linked to current perceptions of child abuse as a major issue. The rights of the buried children, at least some of whom appear to have been mistreated during th~iI lives, and a desire that they not be disturbed further, are other concerns expressed.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the site has particular value and is esteemed as a 'Cemetery' - not the usual form of cemetery with accoutrements such as landscape design, monumentation, plantings and inscriptions or plaques, but rather, an extraordinary vacant site where, in a strange twist of fate, the burial ground is marJ

3.3.4 Scientific Research Potential

The Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery has extraordinary' research potential and, if the human remains present are regarded as available for research, unquestioned ability to yield information that can contribute to substantive questions about burial and skeletons of Australian children in the Nineteenth Century as well as more global researcl) questions about children's skeletons. This is a matter that is discussed by Denise Donlon in detail in the 1993 Archaeological Assessment prepared by Anne Bickford and Associates. Donlon highlights the following research areas:

• race;

• sex; • age, growth and development;

• stature;

• disease;

• nutritional evidence and environmental stress;

• genetic relationships; and

• burials - rates of decay and preservation.

Donlon also argues that the anthropological collection is significant as it is representative of a range of variation within a sample, albeit a biased sample, and that, as a group of 'sub-adult' skeletons, the collection has particular value as a forensic reference set.

The advice provided by Donlon has been discussed with Emeritus Profe.ssor Richard Wright, (physical anthropologist), and through him with experts at the Australian National University and the National History

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Museum in London. The research value of the site is confirmed by this consultation. Those c.onsulted also provided specific advice on methodologies and comparable material (eg Spitalfields, UK).

While it might be arguable whether it is practical to analyse.. race or sex differences from the subject population, if individuals cannot be specifically identified, there is no doubt that the incidence of particular diseases or conditions and the condition of skeletal material can contribute to a wide range of research areas, particularly consideration of age/growth and development, (eg. dental agellimb bone examinations). The- question- of possible Aboriginal descent is a major issue at this site. Advice received from Simon Easteal from the Australian National University, suggests that if soft tissue samples, (eg. skinlhair), are ~. available it would be possible, (after an extended period of analysis), to establish Aboriginal descent as there are unique genetic markers in the HLA area of DNA. (This conclusion has a rather profound impact on options for consultative and statutory procedures to be followed. If it cannot be shown that there are DQ!; persons of Aboriginal descent buried, it is nevertheless desirable to treat the site as though such persons are present, given that subsequent long term analysis may well indicate that they are).

In addition to the specifically technical physical anthropological and forensic examinations that would be poss~ble, various aspects of human activity can also be examined including evidence of nineteenth-century living, child welfare, material culture, (if grave goods are present), and similar themes.

3.3.5 Other Values

In considering the nature of significance, the NSW Department of Planning categorises suc~ significance into a range of criteria, broadly historic, aesthetic, scientific and social. However, a category of 'other' is also defined. (The 'degree' of significance is addressed in relation to rarity and representativeness below.)

'Other' values are usually interpreted to mean educational or interpretive abilities. It is possible that the Cemetery site or physical remains could be used for interpretation, particularly interpretation of the history of the site or an appropriate memorial to the children. However, these values have already been addressed in relation to historic association and social significance.

It would also be possible to consider interpretation of the physical remains themselves. Such an approach is inconsistent with Aboriginal values and the contemporary social mores of Australia in the 1990s. This principle was recently established through detailed consideration of excavation/display and conservation options at the site of the Old Sydney Burial Ground beneath Sydney Town Hall. In this case, while the physical remains were disturbed by construction activity, all human remains were reburied on site, despite some interest being expressed in long term display. The predominant reason for the decision to rebury and not to display was a perception that such displays would be offensive to sections of the community and were therefore inappropriate.

3.3.6 Rarity

Investigations into similar sites throughout Australia suggest that the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery is extremely unusual, and could be argued to be unique. It appears to be the larg~st by far and

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one of only four of exclusively children's cemeteries linked to an institution. The others are the Parkerville Children's Home Cemetery, the Tardum Boystown-Cemetery and the Bindoon Boystown Cemetery, all in Western Australia. The Parkerville site has only c.25 burials of young children, (aged less than three years). The other two sites have 5 (Tardum) and 3 (Bindoon) burials only. As an institutional children's cemetery the subject site is therefore in a class of its own.

The research notes provided in Section 6.0 give a summary of investigations and discussions with institutions all around Australia and a general contextual overview of potentially similar sites. It would appear that there are only. a handful of cemeteries in the country exclusively devoted to children. These are the subject site, the Parkerville, Tardum and Bindoon Cemeteries, the Pennyweight Flat Cemetery near Castlemaine in Victoria, (which may have some adult burials), and the Moonta Children's Cemetery in South Australia. In addition, a number of large municipal cemeteries, such as the Gore Hill and Rookwood cemeteries in Sydney, do have sections devoted predominantly to children's burials.

Investigation of cemeteries attached to institutions is a more complex matter.. A number are known including, for example, the cemetery attached to Gladesville Hospital in Sydney.

3.3.7 Representativeness

On the one hand, the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery is rare. On the other hand, it also has a range of representative qualities. The physical evidence may typify the plight of nineteenth-eentury children and the attributes of the nineteenth-eentury welfare system and burial practices. As with many nineteenth-eentury Australian cemeteries, the land was not consecrated or dedicated for burial. It could also be argued that a population of between 160 and 170 children, is a biased, but nevertheless sufficiently sizeable, sample to be representative of the 'lower' social orders of the time.

3.4 1995 Application of Criteria 3.4.1 Preamble

A clear principle established in the Historic Themes and Evaluation Criteria Draft Manual is the relevance of understanding an indiv!dual site in context. In the case of heritage studies where large numbers of sites are considered against the. background of a single thematic history, it is useful and recommended that appropriate State and Local historic themes be identified. In this context, a number of State themes are relevant:

• Aboriginal contact, (possible);

• government administration;

• social institutions;

• health;

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• welfare; and

• death. To these can be added a single major theme that is identified in the 1989 Randwick Heritage Study, completed by Perumal Murphy:

• government and institutions.

In the following evaluation, each criterion and the relevant inclusion guidelines are applied in the context of the themes noted above.

3.4.2 Evolution and Association (Historic)

Significant in the evolving pattern of the history of New South Wales•

.Show significant evidence of human occupation or activity:

• The Cemetery provides physical evidence of a sample of the many children who lived in the Asylum and their living conditions.

Are associated with a significant activity, event, historical phase or person:

• activity - child welfare/establishment of welfare institutions/philanthropy;

• .: -event - 1873 Public Charities Royal Commission/1881 State Children's Relief Board;

• phase - 1830s-191 Os major changes to welfare system and treatment of children;

• person - Mr and Mrs William Charles Windeyer/Joseph CoulterlMisses Hill

Maintain or show the continuity of a historical process or activity:

• changes in child welfare 1830s-191 Os.

The Cemetery clearly satisfies this criteria under the themes of Government administration, Government institutions, social institutions and welfare.

3.4.3 Creative and Technical Accomplishment (Aesthetic)

Significant for creative or technical excellence, inspiration, innovation or achievement in New South Wales.

Show creative or technical innovation or achievement:

• not applicable.

Are the inspiration for a creative or technical innovation or achievement:

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• not applicable.

Are associated with the creative or technical accomplishment:

• inspiration for published works on the Asylum; and

• associative values.

Are aesthetically distinctive:

• not applicable.

Define' or enhance a place:

• provides a trigger to the imagination and is crucial to the 'sense of place'.

Have elements which exemplify a particular place, style or custom:

• not applicable.

The Cemetery does not sUbstantially satisfy this criterion.

3.4.4 Community Esteem (Social)

Significant through association with a community in New South Wales for social, spiritual or other reasons.

Are held in high esteem by an identifiable group in the community or by the community as a whole:

• relatives of the deceased and relatives of former Asylum inmates;

• association with the Prince of Wales Hospital;

• Aboriginal community;

• Historians and Genealogists, (via other interests);

• Physical Anthropologists! Forensic Scientists, (via other interests);

• wider community as evidenced by heritage listings, (LEP, Register of the National Estate, National Trust); and

• public interests as evidenced by media coverage.

Have special cultural, social, spiritual, aesthetic or educational value or associations:

• Aboriginal associations, (possible link with stolen children);

• death - tradition of respect for the dead and cemeteries;

• child abuse and 1990s contemporary interest/guilt;

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• are crucial to a community's sense of place;

• a trigger to the emotions;

• the role of a burial ground as a cultural marker;

• lacking usual design elements such as landscape and monuments, therefore the bodies are important; and

• if there are no remains there is no cemetery and no 'place'.

The Cemetery clearty satisfies this criterion under the themes of Aboriginal contact (potential), social institutions, welfare, government institutions and death.

3.4.5 Research Potential (Scientific)

Significant for the potential to yield information contributing to an understanding of the history, or historic environment of New South Wales.

Have the potential to yield worthwhile historical or archaeological information:

• research into race, sex, age, (growth and development), stature, disease, nutrition, environmental ".. stress, genetic relationships;

•. burials - rates of decay and preservation;

• representative of a range of variation or type;

• rare collection;

• burial and mortuary practices;

• dental agellimb bone length examinati0ll;

• DNA tests;

• social issues, (grave goods/physical conditions/cause of death);

• contain fabric which shows aspects of human activity;

• evidence of child welfare.;

• a select spectrum of nineteenth-century society; and

• evidence of 'abandonmenf of children - sign of the times.

Are important benchmarks or reference sites or types:

• scientific research potential, as above;

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• potentially important forensic collection;

• Australian 'type sef of nineteenth-century children;

• provide evidence of technology or culture that is unavailable elsewhere; and

• primary physical data of nineteenth-century children in a welfare institution.

The Cemetery clearly satisfies this criterion under the themes of health, welfare and death.

3.4.6 Other

Significant for some other value to past, present or future generations in New South Wales.

Items which have som.e significant value not included above:

• not applicable.

Items which are particularly suitable for public education through on-site interpretation:

• values as already outlined above; and

• display of physical remains is considered inappropriate.

The Cemetery does not substantially satisfy this criterion.

3.4.7 Rarity

Significant in possessing rare, endangered or uncommon aspects of the history, or a historic environment, of New South Wales.

Provide evidence of a defunct custom, way of life or process:

• nineteenth-century welfare;

• philanthropy; and

• benevolent societies.

Demonstrate designs or techniques of exceptional interest:

• not applicable.

Demonstrate a process, custom or other human activity that is in danger of being lost:

• not applicable. Are scarce examples of a particular style, custom or activity:

• nineteenth-century children, (physical anthropology);

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• nineteenth-century exclusively children's cemetery; and

• one of only four known children'slinstitutional cemeteries in Australia.

Show unusually accurate evidence of a significant human activity:

• opportunity for the children, (via their physical remains), to tell their own story, not biased or edited by official reports.

The Cemetery clearly satisfies this criterion under the themes of government administration, govemment institutions, social institutions, welfare and death.

3.4.8 Representativeness

Significant in demonstrating the characteristics of a class of items, or environments, in New South Wales.

Have the principal characteristic of an important class or group of items:

• nineteenth-century destitute children's welfare - physical remains.

Have attributes typical of a particular way of life, philosophy, custom, process, design, technique or activity:

• nineteenth-century welfare; and

• nineteenth-century burial practices - undedicated ground, (plus possible physical evidence).

Are significant variations of the class of items:

• burial ground for children only.

Are part of a group which collectively illustrates variation within a type:

• not applicable.

Are seminal or optimal examples of a class of items:

• not applicable.

Are outstanding because of their size, integrity, condition or setting:

• outstanding because of the substantial sample size (167 individuals).

The Cemetery clearly satisfies this criterion under the themes of govemment institutions, social institutions, welfare and death.

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3.5 Effect of Archaeological Excavation on Significance The 1995-96 Archaeological Investigation has substantially altered the cultural significance of the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum. Specifically:

• the physical integrity of the site no longer exists;

• the emotive burial ground without markers or monuments is gone; and

• the scientific research potential of the place and the remains of the children themselves have been realised through investigation, recording and analysis.

Nevertheless, the Cemetery as a 'place' retains significant attributes, particularly:

• its strong historical association with the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum;

• profound community esteem and value, specially to relatives of the deceased, and others with special interest; and

• scientific values now embodied not only in remains but also in records and what is known about the 'place'.

The significance of the place will be further enhanced when the remains of the children are reburied, (as is planned) and the site resumes its role as a burial ground.

3.6 Endnotes

1 s. Garton, Out ofLuck, PoorAustralians and Social Welfare, p.61.

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_ Conservation Policy

4.1 Preamble The Archaeological Investigation of the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery was cOlllpleted in accordance with a detailed Conservation Policy prepared by Kate Sullivan and Associates in June 1995 and adopted by the Heritage Council of NSW.

Sections 4.2 and 4.3 below, reproduce the philosophical statement and iOmplementation policies from the overall conservation policy report (where relevant references and institutional names such as SESAHS have been updated).

4.2 Philosophical Statement The South Eastem Sydney Area Health Service, (SESAHS) is cognisant of the significance of the site and of the interest of the various parties concemed, including the descendants, the Aboriginal community, various researchers and statutory authorities and the public at large who are the recipients of health services. The SESAHS is seeking to retain the established significance of the site by: retaining the .r~mains on site; realising the research potential of the site; preserving and retaining the historic associations of the site; and, by appropriate commemoration, interpretation and presentation of th"e site within the context of the Asylum generally.

The SESAHS recognises the fact that a Conservation Plan for the entire Prince of Wales Precinct must be undertaken as a matter of urgency and is committed to this course of action.

4.3 Implementation Policies 4.3.1 Essential Background Research Excavation is Undertaken

• Any background research needed for re-establishing the location of the Victorian ground surface and re-establishing datum for vertical and horizontal control.

• Review of literature regarding Australian Victorian mortuary practices (of various social classes) sufficient to allow predictions for layout, grave contents etc.

• Research into the use of the site during World War I sufficient to understand site formation processes and to predict this period.

• Review of primary sources including the Destitute Children's Asylum Register and the Minutes of the Benevolent Society (Benevolent Asylum House Committee minutes) to enable predictions about (among other things):

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which individuals may be present;

distinct ethnic and/or religious and/or racial groups [ego Church of England, Catholic, Aboriginal, Jewish or Chinese], which may have led to particular groupings or burial practices; any groupings based on disease;

evidence which might arise in relation to use pattems of the Asylum site; and any specific events which might be evident in the site.

• Examination of the death certificates to provide information about cause of death and genealogical information about individuals.

• Review of historic material to provide an understanding of the social context of the Asylum and the Cemetery.

• Other research as may be necessary to maximise understanding of the site and its contents. Other detailed research undertaken concurrently with excavation.

4.3.2 Excavation

• Archaeological research questions for which data should be sought should be outlined in any excavation proposals. These should include but not be-limited to questions about cause of death, direction of burials, mortuary practices, existence of any fences, existence of separate sections within the Cemetery, the relationship of the Cemetery to the rest of the site through time, use of the site during the occupation of the military and subsequently.

• Osteological and forensic research questions for which data should be sought during excavation and temporary storage should be outlined in any excavation proposal and should include but not be limited to identification of trauma (in situ observations) disposition, evidence of disease, diet and lifestyle, race, age and sex etc.

• If either pre or post-contact Aboriginal Skeletal remains or pre-contact Aboriginal cultural remains are discovered the archaeologist must immediately notify the National Parks and Wildlife Service and consult with the Local Aboriginal Land Council. If any identifiable individuals are discovered the archaeologist will immediately inform the Management Committee who will undertake appropriate consultation with descendants of relatives.

4.3.3 Recording and/or data collection during and after excavation

• All human remains will be treated with the degree of respect that would be afforded a recently deceased and cherished person in our society.

• All personnel working on the site will receive training or instruction as to appropriate decorous behaviour while on site and when handling human bone material.

• Individual skeletal remains will be maintained in separate containers.

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• Every end.eavour will be made to observe, measure and record material and human remains in situ, prior to removal. This applies to cultural as well as human remains.

• No intrusive research will be conducted on the human bone material without written consent from the Management Committee. This Committee will not make a decision without further consultatioo· with the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council and other interest groups including descendants of relatives of those buried. Any such proposals must: demonstrate their usefulness in the short to medium term and their ability to be conducted without delaying the course of excavation and re-interment; set out clearly and in plain English what samples are required to undertake the research; state what will eventually become of any sample taken, how they are to be taken and the affect they will have on the remains; state whether it is possible to replace any samples after analysis, (ie restore the bone from which . the sample is taken); and whether there are any other non-intrusive means of undertaking the research.

• All data which can be recorded by measurement, observation, X-ray, and photography will be recorded from the human remains..

• As soon as the site is ready to receive the remains for re-interment they will be re-interred.

4.3.4 Conservation and Housing

Conservation and housing of human remains and associated grave goods while awaiting re-interment will follow these guidelines (b!ised upon the assumption that some period of time, up to 12 months, may elapse before the site is ready to receive the material).

• Conservation and housing of all materials throughout the excavation period will be secure and in conditions to ensure stability of the remains and artefacts.

• Such conservation treatment as is required to guar~ntee the stability of the human remains during excavation and for storage of up to twelve months will be undertaken.

• Individual remains will be boxed individually and any associated grave goods will be included.

• Any reasonable wishes of the La Perouse Land Council or descendants of relatives regarding storage will be adhered to, providing such request neither interferes with the stability of the remains nor operates to the exclusion of other descendants interests. Specifically it has been suggested that some soil be placed with the bones in the boxes during storage to maintain the link with the earth and the resting place. This is in accordance with the significance of the site. Further it has been requested that a ceremony (smoking ceremony) b~ conducted in the storage area before storage, again once all the remains are in place and again at the time of re-interment. Other religious groups should be invited to be involved at these times.

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• Treatment and housing of historic materials whLcb are neither grave goods nor human remains must promote their stability both during excavation and in the long term. These remains will receive treatment to stabilise them should this be necessary and appropriate. Advice from specialists in this field will be sought. The materials will be stored in a secure and stable environment with appropriate labeling and packaging.

• The long term housing of materials which are neither grave goods nor human remains will be decided in consultation with the Heritage Branch of the Department of Planning and Urban Affairs. These decisions will be taken in the light of the Interpretation Plan which will be a sub-component of the Prince of Wales Precinct Conservation Plan.

4.3.5 Involvement of Special Interest Groups

.. Special inJ~r~st. groups are identified as descendants of .relatives of the deceased; descendants of people who were in the Asylum; the Abpriginal community represented through the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council, the Randwick District Historical Society, and the Hospital Chaplains.

• These groups will be informed in writing of the proposed course of action before it is made public and regularly informed of what is happening at the site from the time the Conservation Policy is approved until interpretation and re-interment is complete. An information phone line may be established if warranted.

• These people should be actively invited to be involved in an appropriate way in the excavation of the site. What should be offered is either a guided tour of the $ite or a position on the excavation team. To become a volunteer team member the interested party would have to meet such criteria as are normally applied to volunteer workers in this situation.

• Guided tours of the site during excavation by these groups will require that any exposed skeletal material will be screened during these visits.

• These groups should be invited to have an input into the interpretation of the Cemetery Site and the Asylum site and the re-interment ceremony.

• They should receive invitations to the re-interment.

• The La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council will be invited to have a representative present on site at all times during excavation. This person's time will be paid for when in attendance. This person is welcome to attend Management Committee meetings when these are held and will be given notice of these meetings.

4.3.6 Media Management and Photographs

• Management of all Media exposure will be co-ordinated through SESAHS Public Relations Unit.

• All media visits to the site will be chaperoned.

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• Only general photographic shots of the site will be permitted by the press and any other visitors to the site. Photographs of individual skeletons or skeletal material will not be permitted by visitors or by " workers other than by the official photographer who will be designated.

4.3.7 Development

• SESAHS will provide sufficient space for the re-interment of the remains within the original-Cemetery site.

• SESAHS will provide sufficient space for the re-interment area to be aesthetically sympathetic to its purpose in maintaining a link with the place of the Cemetery.

• The landscaping of the area and the finish of the adjacent buildings will b_e sympathetic to the purpose of the space as a commemorative area and meet obligations arising from site significance.

• !'ccess to the space will not be denied to the public, provided that normal Hospital site access protocols are observed. ~ . .- 4.3.8 Re~interment of Human Remains l ..... - .~ Housing and packaging of remains while awaiting re-interment. Individual remains will be boxed individually and any associated grave goods will be included.

•" "The decoration of packaging of remains at re-interment will be decided in consultation with the descendants and the Land Council and will be part of the Interpretive Plan developed.

• The re-interment will take place with a suitable ceremony which will be outlined in the Interpretive Plan and will include, but need not be limited to the involvement of an Aboriginal component, a Catholic component, a Church of England component and such other Protestant or other religious component as is justified by the historical data or requested by the descendants.

4.3.9 Interpretation

• No displays on site or at the hospital or in any publications will include any photographs of whole skeletons or bones, see Section 4.3.10.

• Interpretation of the site will take place in three ways: the site will be interpreted during excavation; the site will be interpreted after excavation and re-interment; and the Asylum at large will be interpreted.

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During ExcavatiDn

An Interpretation Plan will be developed (by an interpretations specialist) which will allow the controlled access, under supervision, of special interest groups. It will ensure that the public at large are given enough information to satisfy them without allowing access. It will devise appropriate screening methods, requirements and protocols which will neither make people feel excluded nor allow any visual access which people may find disturbing. It will meet the requirements of the Public Health Unit.

Re-interment and Subsequent InterpretatiDn

An interpretation and presentation plan will be developed (by an interpretations specialist) in consultation with interest groups and based upon history and archaeological research. The plan will set out details of re­ interment ceremonies, and post re-interment site interpretation. This plan will include the commemoration of the dead children, and the use of the site during World War I. It will be sympathetic to the place of the forgotten Cemetery and will link the Cemetery to the Asylum history and social context. Some of this interpretation may take place at locations other than the site itself. This interpretive plan will be an integral part of the wider Asylum Interpretive Plan. It will be consistent with this Conservation Policy.

InterpretatiDn Df the Asylum Site and its HistDry

An Interpretive Plan will be developed (by an interpretations specialist) for the whole of the Asylum site and history and in consultation with interest groups and will be based upon historical and archaeological research. This will be part of the Conservation Plan for the Prince of Wales Hospital Precinct. The presentation of the Asylum will commemorate the lives of all the children who passed through the institution and will interpret the Significance of the Asylum and the Military Hospital and such other values as are identified in the Conservation Plan of the precinct.

4.3.10 Use Df Data and RecDrds frDm the Site

Ownership of data collected during excavation and background research will be passed from the hospital to the Heritage Branch of the Department of Planning and Urban Affairs to enable the data to be lodged with the State Archives. Conditions as to its use will be determined in consultation with the Heritage Branch but will include restrictions on publications of photographs of whole skeletons without the consent of the La Perouse Local Aboriginal Land Council. Publication of small parts of bones in scientific joumals will be permitted where they are necessary illustrations.

4.3.11 Site Management During ExcavatiDn.

The site will be under the control of a Management Committee which will consist of the following members:

• the South Eastem Area Health Service; • the Prince of Wales Hospital; • the Heritage Council;

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• the Heritage Branch of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planing; • the Public Health Unit; • the South Eastem Area Health Service Heritage Adviser; and • the Archaeologist who holds the contract to excavate the site. This Committee will receive regular reports from the Archaeologist.

4.3.12 Integration into Precinct Conservation Plan

•A revised Statement of Significance will be prepared as part of the excavation and reporting obligations, and this Interim Conservation Policy will be revised at that time and in the light of further historical and archaeological work.

•A Plan of Management for the re-interment site and commemorative area will be developed as a .. .specific component of the Conservation Plan discussed below. .~- . • The South Eastem Area Health Service and the Prince of Wales Hospital will as a matter of urgency undertake the professional preparation of a comprehensive Conservation Plan for the Prince of Wales Hospital Precinct listed on the register of the National Estate, and this Conservation Policy for the Cemetery part of the major Asylum site, wi!! become part of that Plan.

.~his Conservation Plan for the Prince of Wales Hospital Precinct will include the development of a .. Statement of Significance for the precinct, and will include the documentation of the history of the Precinct in its social setting, identification of the area's potential archaeological significance, identification of its historic buildings, and make appropriate recommendations about these. The Plan will include intf;lrpretive plans as outlined above.

4.3.13 Compliance with Acts

The following Acts either apply or have the potential to apply to the site:

The Heritage Act 1977-'

The Public Health Act 199Z'

The National Parks andWildlife Act 1974s' and

The Australian Heritage Commission Act 1975.

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_ Archaeology of the Cemetery

5.1 Introduction The following represents a synthesis of the results of analysis of physical and documentary evidence gathered during archaeological investigation at the former 'Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery. The discussion presents interpretations of evidence recovered in terms of a number of general themes including the historical configuration and phys'ical appearance of. the cemetery and mortuary and interment practices.

Mortuary practices observed at the Asylum resulted from an interplay of nineteenth-century religious ritual and secular law, both of which had developed over several centuries in Europe and were then transferred to an Australian context. These practices were clearly demonstrated by the physical evidence recovered during the archaeological investigation of the Cemetery site.

Processes associated with the preparation of the corpse for burial, coffin design, interment methods, the distribution of graves within the cemetery accorded with accepted convention in most cases, although a number of notable exceptions were recorded. Mortuary practices undertaken, as, represented by the archaeological evidence, are discussed in following sections.

5.2 The Burial Ground The 'Cemetery was located approximately 300m southwest of the main buildings associated with the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum. It consisted of a rectangular space measuring 91.3m (north/south) by 24m (east/west) which was aligned close to True North.1

Physical and documentary evidence gathered during the project indicates that the Cemetery had only one purpose - disposal of the dead. Stock grazing in association with the Asylum farm is unlikely to have taken place within this area. However, despite this apparent exclusive function, no ,evidence was recovered to suggest that the Cemetery was formally gazetted or consecrated as a burial ground. The apparent care taken in aligning the Cemetery close to True North implies at least informal alienation of this part of the property by the Asylum management. However, because it is unclear whether the cemetery was a legally sanctioned burial ground such formal planning might be considered somewhat inconsistent.2

Whether or not the cemetery was consecrated is unclear. Exhaustive documentary research during the project failed to identify confirmation of the status of the site, however all recorded burials were accompanied by a religious service, or at least by the presence of a minister of religion.3

A number of issues may have influenced the choice of location for the Cemetery within the Asylum grounds. Its position behind a dune crest, at a distance from the Asylum buildings was probably a result of intersecting pragmatic considerations and contemporary perceptions of an appropriate site for a burial ground.

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The..burial area used was located on exposed, undulating ground with poor sandy soils and it seems likely that the location was considered to be unsuitable for agricultural purposes. The Asylum also relied heavily on public subscription for its continued operation - a prominently located cemetery for the interment of deceased inmates may have been considered to reflect poorly on the level of health care provided by the organisation. In addition, management may also have considered it necessary to separate the youthful inmates from this most visible aspect of death. Finally, when the Cemetery was in use there was a strongly held belief in the mephitic influence of the decay associated with burial grounds. Decay and its resultant odour were associated with disease and more particularly with epidemic outbreaks of disease. The location of the cemetery in a remote, well-ventilated area of the grounds may well have been undertaken in response to such perceptions.

Both documentary and physical evidence indicating that the cemetery was fenced, was recovered during the course of the project. A plan of the Asylum made in 1891 clearly shows the location of the cemetery with its boundary defined by a symbol conventionally used to denote a fence.4

Physical evidence of ten posts was identified in relict nineteenth-eentury topsoil and subsoil. A Iioe drawn through the location of these post hole cuts (some of which included remnant timbers) precisely matched the cemetery boundary recorded in 1891. Neither the documentary evidence nor the physical evidence revealed by excavation indicates the date at which the fence was installed.

The fence posts were spaced at approximately two and a half metre intervals although two in grid square G14 were only one metre apart, perhaps indicating a former gap in the fenceline in this position. The dimensions of the posts (approximately 60mm .by 130mm) and their spacing are consistent with a post­ and-rail fence. This accords with a description of the Cemetery in 1890 in which the Cemetery is referred to as being 'railed off' rather than fenced.s

The 1891 survey plan also indicated that a small brick structure, measuring 4.68m by 3.76m, with buttressed comers was located in the southem third of the Cemetery, near the eastern boundary.6 Although no firm physical evidence of the building was recovered, examination of the distribution of graves showed that this building was situated in a part of the site where no interments occurred. Burial appears to have taken place according to sectarian groupings (discussed below), and although no use was ascribed to this structure in the contemporary documentation it may have been a Sexton's lodge or hut. Such bUildings are common in cemeteries and were often used for the storage of tools employed during excavation of graves. It seems reasonable to assume that this was the purpose of the bUilding recorded.

The archaeological investigation also recovered evidence that an informal path may have been established near the boundary fence at some time between 1863 and 1891. Intact deposits that could be firmly associated with the Asylum occupation phase were identified in the southwest of the site. Two discrete alignments of sandstone quarry waste were identified on the surface of the nineteenth-century topsoil. These lay parallel with the western boundary of the cemetery and were located between the boundary and the first row of burials. These features were interpreted as possible remnants of an informal 'path' surface, but because subsequent development removed most of the remaining nineteenth-eentury topsoil from the

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site the original extent of the features could not be determined. On the basis of the limited evidence the most that can be said is that the Cemetery may have had a gravel path around its perimeter. Indeed, the system of gravel paths within the Asylum grounds and the manner in which they were maintained drew praise from the contemporary newspapers.7

Establishment of a path outside the burial area, rather than between graves, is somewhat unconventional, but such a location would have served to further define the burial area. Although no direct, physical evidence was recovered indicating the chronological relationship between the fence and the path the Cemetery boundary may have originally been defined by a path before a fence was built.

In 1890 the Cemetery was described as being "prettily planted" and "shady-looking" although no specific details of plant species employed were recorded.8 Archaeological investigation on the westem margin of the Cemetery identified relict deposits ef topsoil capable of supporting vegetation but it was impossible to distinguish between floral remains that may have represented intentional planting between c1863 and 189~, and those that developed after alienation of the burying ground. Palynological evidence of soil sam·ples recovered from the burials was also unable to provide unequivocal evidence for the introduction of decorative plantings. Native species dominated the sample indicating either partial regeneration of indigenous vegetation during the period when the Cemetery was in use or immediately followings its closure (see Volume 2, Part 5, Section 2.0).

By 1,918, the site was reported to be "thinly grassed".9 A photograph of the site at this time suggests that any" substantial plantings made during the Nineteenth Century had either been deliberately removed, or allowed to have been overtaken by grass cover. lO

Historical research during the project suggested that the Cemetery had been divided along sectarian lines, with separation between areas where Protestants and Roman Catholic children were buried. In addition to notes such as "buried in the ground adjacent to the Institution", the Asylum Registers make a number of references to inmates having been buried in the Protestant or Roman Catholic burial ground adjacent to the Institution. Such spatial division is further supported by the results of the archaeological investigation and osteological studies of recovered human skeletal material.

Comparison of the chronological order of death with the results of randomisation studies based on differences between the age of death and estimates of the sex of skeletal remains supports an interpretation that Protestants were buried in graves at the northem end of the cemetery and Catholics in the southem end (see Volume $, Section 5.3.3 of this report). This inference was later supported by the recovery of a rosary from a grave in the southem' section. 11

If the distribution suggested by the evidence was in fact correct, approximately 38% of the area available within the cemetery (720m2) was allocated for burial of Roman Catholics; the remainder (62% being 1315m2) being allotted for members of the Church of England (and possibly other denominations) (a ratio of 1.0 : 1.82). The remaining 156m2 of the total area of the Cemetery formed the above-mentioned 'zone' separating the sectarian groupings. This pattem matches historically recorded divisions within other burial

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grounds in Sydney. For example, at the Rookwood Necropolis the original allocation of land for various denominations resulted in a Roman Catholic - Protestant ratio of 1.0 : 1.92.12

It is unclear at this stage if this reflects the general demographics of the Colony, or in the. case of the Asylum, the specific demographics of the Institution. It is known that Catholics were under-represented in the Asylum's goveming body and the disparity may reflect the dominant religious culture of the time. The complaint raised in 1876 by the Rev J.M. Garavel, Roman Catholic chaplain to the institution, that "since the last three years our community has taken less interest in the institution; ....on account of their having no influence at the Board" may be indicative of a certain level sectarian bias within the institution. 13

If the Asylum Cemetery was indeed divided in this fashion then it appears that 122 inmates who were members of the Cj1ur<2.h of England were buried in the northem part of the cemetery and 52 Roman Catholics were buried in the south (based on information recorded in the Asylum Death Register and death certificates) .. Naturally such estimates are dependent upon the accuracy of the information recorded.

In summary, it appears that interment in the Cemetery probably mirrored conventional practices adopted at most early- and mid-Nineteenth Century municipal and institutional burial grounds in Australia.

5.3 The Grave At the beginning of the project, documentary research on the Cemetery indicated that 175 individuals had been interred in the Asylum Cemetery. However, no maps or plans showing the location of these graves were recovered. As a result, an excavation methodology was specifically designed to identify very fine colour/texture variations representin9 grave markers in the former topsoil deposits, so that if present, such evidence could be used to inform subsequent planning during the remainder of the field program.

Despite the use of such methods, no evidence for the use of grave markers was identified in association with the sixty-five burials recovered. This is quite unusual because most graves within cemeteries are marked in order to commemorate the deceased, define the location of graves and prevent unintentional disturbance of existing graves by future burials. Obviously the use of grave markers at the Destitute Asylum Cemetery would have fulfilled the last two functions. Inference from available historical information regarding the social and political context of the Asylum, however, suggests that the children's graves remained unmarked.

As discussed previously, the Asylum relied heavily on public donations. The reason for its existence was to provide a means of rehabilitating morally endangered and economically disadvantaged children from all parts of New South Wales. It seems likely that the Asylum management were aware that the future of the institution depended, to some extent, on successful achievement of these aims and a visible display of such success. A clearly visible field of crosses within the Asylum grounds may have been at odds with the public image sought by management.

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The limited infonnation available regarding ritual processes completed prior to the burial of inmates in the Asylum Cemetery may also indicate that the management believed that the 'dissolute' parents of children admitted had not cared for their children while they were alive and would therefore care even less when they were dead. Burial within the Cemetery was attended only by employees of the Asylum ratnl2r than by relatives of the deceased.14 The only recorded instance of a relative attending an inmate's burial" took place on 3 October 1884 when Alexander Perrell Francis Wilkie, a station manager was present during intennent of his son John Marshall Wilkie. In this case however, the burial was conducted at Waverley Cemetery rather than at the Asylum Cemetery.15 It is assumed that management were legally obliged to notify next of kin when the death of an inmate occurred, however, again, no evidence that this took place was recovered during the course of the project.

Whether or not a plan of graves within the cemetery ever existed cannot be detennined, although an infonnal plan may have been used by the Sexton to retain order within the burial ground. If grave sites wes.e marked at any time, then this evidence had certainly been removed by 1918, when it was observed that; ''there are no headstones nor any other outward indication of the existence of the graves".16

Excavation revealed that graves were arranged in north/south rows with individual burials aligned east/west. Two main concentrations of burials were recorded: twenty burials in five rows in the north and forty-four burials in five rows in the south. These groups were separated by an area 6.5m wide where no iiltennents took place. Each row was separated by 1m to 1.5m and graves within a row were separated by 1.5m to 1.75m..A single grave, possibly an unauthorised burial, was identified in the area separating the groups.;'fhe length of the coffin indicated that this was the grave of a newbom.

All of the intact graves were oriented east/west. In New South Wales the rule regarding this fonn of alignment was established by Governor Macquarie. The regulations created for the new burial ground in Sydney in 1820 in order to preserve the "Future Regularity of Intennents" included:

That the ordinary Description ofGraves, Whether with orwithout Tomb orHeadstone, be also uniformly placedin line with each other, extending East and West according to the Order establishedin the Mother Country. 17

The "Order established" in Britain appears to have been a tradition of long standing rather than a legal requirement.

All graves investigated during the excavation were earth-cut primary inhumations. None were lined or sealed with impenneable materials and no ~nn evidence was recovered for re-intennent of burials either in the original grave or in a new location. No intact, empty graves were identified.

In preparing for the physical investigation of the site the possibility of the use of mass graves, particularly during the periods of epidemic, was considered. The use of mass inhumations was a traditional response in Europe at this time, particularly during times of crisis. It was also suggested that a mass intennent of skeletal remains may have taken place in 1918 during clearance of the Cemetery site. This tentative conclusion was based on equivocal documentation associated with the clearance of the site in 1918 with

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no reference being made to the formal removal of skeletat remains for reburial. 18 No such secondary burial was encountered during investigation of the Cemetery and the areas immediately adjacent to it.

All of the graves excavated in the Asylum Cemetery were single graves; there were no mass burials even during the periods of epidemic when many deaths occurred during short periods of time. In March and April 1867 for example, twenty-two of the Roman Catholic children buried in the Asylum Cemetery died of measles compounded by secondary complications including whooping cough. 19 All twenty-two burials from this period have been tentatively identified through comparison of death certificates with the osteological evidence.

An accurate assessment of the original configuration of graves proved to be extremely difficult owing to the effects of repeated disturbance-at the site following the closure of the Asylum in 1915. These events, and assessments of their impact on the archaeological res('mrce, are described in detail in Volume 2, Part 1 of this Report. Remnant patches of the nineteenth-century topsoil survived above only seven of the graves.20 .In most cases, the general ground levels around ihe graves had been reduced to the former A2 horizon (white, bleached sand). As a result it could not be determined whether the original surface of the site was characterised by low mounds of soil or depressions above each grave.

Because grave fills identified be~ow remnant patches of nineteenth-century topsoil were indistinguishable from the surrounding matrix it appears that some topsoil development occurred during the period between the first interment and construction of the Military Hospital on the Cemetery site (1863-1918). Such development probably allowed some form of vegetation cover to develop, thus obscuring lighter coloured patches of grave fill at the surface. This accords with descriptions of the site in 1918 suggesting that there was nothing observable in this area to suggest its former use as a Cemetery.21

Removal of deposits across the site between 1915 and 1994 also precluded accurate assessment of the depths to which grave were originally excavated. The earliest rules regarding depth of burial in New South Wales were enacted by Govemor Lachlan Macquarie in 1810 whereby Chaplains were authorised to dismiss grave diggers who:

neglect to make the Graves ofa suitable Depth, as well for the sake ofpublic Decencyas ofpreventing any noxious Effluvia arising from thence to the Offence orInjury ofthe Society.22

Such an edict appears to have resulted from the prevailing contemporary belief that noxious effluvia and the smell of decay emanating from graves was enough to cause illness. If burial practices at the Asylum conformed with this requirement then grave excavation within the Cemetery was probably undertaken as deep as possible given the unstable nature of the sandy matrix present at the site.

Approximate depths of grave excavation was tentatively assessed following determination of a notional original angle of slope of the Cemetery ground surface, based on projection of the surface of surviving patches of nineteenth-century topsoil in the west and southwest portions of the site. These calculations suggest that grave depths probably varied between 500mm and 900m below the nineteenth-century ground surface. This relatively shallow depth was probably determined in part by the fine, unstable sand

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matrix into which the graves were cut. During the archaeological investigation it was noted that trench excavation to depths greater than about 700mm necessitated shoring and it seems highly likely that similar conditions prevailed during the excavation of graves. Excavation of relatively shallow graves may have been a response to this problem. t'I"

Forty-six of the graves survived to the extent that the original configuration of the grave cufcould be determined. Twenty-one of these displayed precise rectangular shapes, four were rectangular and flared at the head end, four were rectangular arad flared at the foot end, and two were flared at both ends. Widening of cuts at the bases of graves suggest that end walls may have collapsed during excavation, possibly as a result of the grave digger climbing out of the grave, or from excavation of a step to permit egress. One rectangular grave (Burial 35) had two lobate flares at the head end suggesting that the grave digger's feet were positioned on either side of the end of the coffin during its placement on the floor of the grave. Eleven graves displayed irregular shapes, probably resulting from either collapse of the walls during the course of excavation or back-filling. Burials 18 and 32 had trapezoidal grave cuts. Burial 23, a single- " break coffin was placed in a 'coffin'-shaped grave. ._... No evidence was recovered to suggest that new materials were introduced into grave fill. Variations in the

'. .." colour and texture of grave fills were interpreted as resulting from mixing of deposits during excavation and filling. Graves with a base formed by the white aeolian sand had a light-grey fill resulting from the mixing'of dark-grey topsoil JH3) with underlying white sand (052). Graves located in the east and south of the site were placed closer to the crest of the former dune in locations in which the white sand (052) was thinnest. These graves were excavated through white sand into underlying Waterloo rock (054) resulting in inclusion of black and dark-brown nodules of Waterloo rock with white sand and grey topsoil in the grave fill.

5.4 The Burial Container Sixty-two of the sixty-five burials recovered during the archaeological investigation had either been interred in coffins or displayed evidence that a coffin had been employed. The remaining three burials (Burials 1, 3 and 5) had been damaged by machine excavation in both 1918 and 1994 which had dispersed the grave contents. Timber fragments and coffin nails were found in close proximity to bone scatters presumably associated with these burials, but they could not be positively associated with them.

Coffins used dUring burial of the children survived as either in situ timber fragment or the shadows of decomposed timber planks, some of which included iron nails used to fasten the timbers. No evidence was recovered for the use of any coffin fabric other than timber.

Six burials (Burials 2, 4, 13, 19, 21 and 38) contained timber fragments that were of sufficient integrity to allow tentative identification of species used to make their coffins.23 This material was tentatively identified as Australian Cedar (Toona australis).24 Cut marks on the surface of a knot from the coffin timbers associated with Burial 21 indicated that the timber planks used were 32mm thick (approximately 114 inch

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boards). At le3st one~ontemp9rary reco~d_ suggests thp.t such timbers were considered to be appropriate for the construction of coffins.25

No evidence of surface finishing was recovered from any of the coffin timbers If it was employed it may not have been of sufficient durability to survive the period between interment and exhumation. Lamp black and size may have been employed as a finish because this material was used to seal coffin timbers at the Tarban Creek Asylum in the 1860s.26 During the late Nineteenth Century however, children's coffins were sometimes painted blue.27

All of the coffins were fixed using screws or nails rather than pegs or staples. No metal fittings such as handles or name plates were recovered from any of the burials and no evidence was identified to suggest that the coffins were lined intemally.

Thirty-eight of th.e sixty-five coffins recovered were of sufficient integrity to permit identification of four general c.offin shapes: Box~shaped (one E1xample); Sir!9le-break (thirty-three examples); Rectangular (two examples); and Trapezoidal (two examples).

The single, box-shaped coffin recovered during the investigation was found in association with the grave of a neonate (BUrial 42). It appeared to have been made using one inch thick timbers which had been cut down to produce a small rectan§ular container for interment. The design of this coffin, and of the rectangular and trapezoidal forms, were very simple - butt-jointed, nailed planks. Rectangular coffins essentially represent a larger version of the box-shaped coffin. The design of trapezoidal coffins featured a wider head board and a narrow foot board, in order to compensate for the width of the deceased's shoulders without the need for kerfing and steaming of the side boards. Each of these three coffin types are sufficiently simple in design to permit manufacture by an unskilled person.

The single-break coffin was by far the most common form represented (88.6% of the total number of identifiable coffins). Its shape is the familiar or traditional coffin shape, being widest at the shoulder and tapering towards the head and foot boards. Three subgroupings featuring variations in shape and manufacture were identified within this general category.28

In all examples the manufacturing techniques featured kerfed side timbers which were butt-jointed to the base, head board and foot board. This is a relatively complicated technique to complete successfully, perhaps indicating that these coffins represent a commercially made prodUCt.

Variations in coffin style cannot be readily explained. They may indicate, however, that the Asylum obtained coffins from different sources, particularly during the Sydney-wide outbreaks of IT)easles and whooping cough in 1867 when the resources of a single supplier are likely to have been considerably extended.

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5.5 The Body Fifty-ni':le burials were sufficiently well preserved to permit determination of the position and orientation of the children's bodies within their coffins.29 All were found in an extended horizontal position, their heads either facing upwards or dropped to the north or south. Fifty-five individuals had been placed-with their heads at the westem end of the coffin, that is facing the east. The remaining five individuals (Burials 21, 36, 38, 39 and 50) were placed with their heads at the eastem ends of their coffins. These five individuals were all located in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery. Burial 50 was the first burial in this section (Frank Obery, 4 June, 1865), while the remaining four burials were identified as sequential interments in the fourth row of graves. At the time of writing, their respective dates of interment have not been determined, however they are likely to have been buried aft!3r the third burial row had been filled (the last burial in Row 3, Burial 53, tentatively identified as Joseph Wallace, was interred on May 18, 1875).

The archaeologically recorded location of an individual's long bones was taken as a reasonable indicator of the positioning of limbs at the time of interment. These skeletal elements survived in fair or good condition in only forty of the burials. Thirty-three individuals had been placed in coffins with their arms extended . ,parallel with theirtorso, four were placed with their hands resting on their pelvis (Burials 29, 40, 52 and 63), one had been'placed with its hands resting on the abdominal region (Burial 53), one with its arms folded across its chest (Burial 51), and one had its arms flexed medially resting on the chest with the hands pointed towards the skull (Burial 50). Having listed these variations it is still unclear whether any standard practices were observed at the Asylum in regard to the arrangement of the children's limbs within coffins prior to interment.

Two of the four examples where the individual's hands had been placed resting on the pelvis (Burials 40 and 52), had one hand located above the ilium and the other hand beneath the opposing ilium. While it is possible that such displacement may have occurred during transportation of the coffin to the grave it seems far more likely that the hands were originally placed on the pelvis and that one arm slid from the body before interment. If such movement occurred in one or two examples there is a possibility that it may also have occurred in the remaining thirty-three burials where the individuals arms were recorded positioned beside and parallel. Altematively the bodies may have been placed in the coffins without specific instruction or care resulting in variations in position of the arms prior to interment.

Supine positioning of an individuals body within a coffin was conventional mortuary practice in Europe dUring the Nineteenth Century. This view of death as sleep was "...the most constant image of the beyond".30 Orientation of the body with its head in the westem end of the coffin, facing the east was established as a Christian tradition in Europe by the Fourteenth Century, the intention being to permit the deceased to face Jerusalem in preparation for the Last Judgement.31 This tradition was transferred to the British colony in Australia and was displayed by archaeological investigations at the Old Sydney Burial Ground where coffins were placed in an east/west orientation with head in the west. Variations in orientation observed in the larger municipal cemeteries of the later Nineteenth Century appear to have

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been the result of landscaping considerations taking pre-eminence over tradition, particularly where the cemeteries were commercial ventures featuring landscaped serpentine walks and gardens.

No obvious explanation presents itself for the unconventional burial practices that occurred during interment of Burials 50, 21, 36, 38, 39. The last of these four burials took place in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery after 1875, and the fact that the burials were in sequence suggests that the explanation for the change in burial orientation may be as simple as the involvement of a novice priest or grave-digger in the burial process. The death certificates indicate that after 1875 the priests responsible for conducting services at the graveside were Fathers T. Foley (-1875), J.M. Garavel (1875-1878), J.P. Hourahan (1879-1880) and M. Tiemey (1887).32 Since none of the burials in this sequence have been identified it has not been possible to link individual interments with particular priests, however it seems possible that one (or more) of the abovementioned priests understood the need to orient the body in a particular direction and altered the system accordingly.

5.6 Grave Goods For discussion purposes the term 'grave goods' is employed to designate all cultural material associated with interment except for fabric associated with burial containers. Grave goods therefore includes material placed with children's bodies as well asmaterial that was placed Ql1 their body, ego clothing or apparel. -

Grave goods recovered from within burials at the Asylum Cemetery were limited in number and type. Three classes of goods were identified: items used to fix burial apparel such as pins and buttons; remnants of dress cloth and a single example of a religious artefact (a set of rosary beads entwined in the right hand of Burial 37).

Only four burials (Burials 21, 29, 37 and 59) displayed remnants of dress cloth. In each case only small quantities were present adhering to the thick patina on the reverse of copper alloy buttons. As a result it is difficult to determine the type of garments that were used. However, it seems likely that the children were dressed in shirts or' a night shirt prior to burial. No evidence was recovered to suggest that they were dressed in more than one garment. No remnants of clothing fabric beyond these were recovered from the burials. A full list of the grave goods recovered is found in Volume 2, Part 2 Appendix H.

Buttons fastening garments clothing the children's bodies in death were recovered from twenty-six of the burials. These items were recovered from various positions on the upper thorax, cervical vertebrae and adjacent to the mandible, suggesting that garments were fastened at the throat or shoulder, either at the front or back. In each case either one or two buttons was used. No buttons were recovered from positions on the lower thorax, limbs or pelvic region and both males and females appear to have been clothed in a similar fashion.

Copper alloy pins were found on the upper thoraxes of three individuals (Burials 7, 24 and 30). The size and location of these items indicate that they may have been employed in association with a cloth or

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winding sheet that was wrapped or folded around the corpses and then fastened at the front beneath the throat.

Copper alloy pins were recovered from the occipital, temporal and parietal areas of the cranium in six of the burials (Burials 24, 28, 30, 31, 32, 38).33 The location of these items suggests that the pins fastened jaw cloths which passed from the top of the individuals cranium beneath the jaw. All of these individuals were buried in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery. No physical evidence for the use of jaw cloths was recovered from graves in the proposed Church of England section.

No identifiable pattem that explains this variation emerges from analysis of the chronological order or spatial distribution in which these burials occurred. It is unclear if this distribution of pins for jaw cloths re~eqts sectarian mortuary practices or results from the use, in other burials of affixing the cloths with non­ durable materials, such as a knot in the cloth.

Jaw cloths were often employed if the deceased's body was to be viewed by family and friends prior to being sealed in a coffin. It is unclear whether or not family members of deceased inmates attended viewings prior tq interment at the Asylum. As discussed previously, there is no indication that inmates relatives attended the graveside therefore it also seems unlikely that they would have attended a viewing. , .' t· . Itseems possible that the use of jaw cloths may have been adopted in these cases in order to prepare the deceased individuals bodies for viewing by other inmates. Alternatively, their use may have been considered an appropriate method of dressing a body whether it was to be viewed or not.

None of the individuals appear to have been provided with footwear for burial. Since most of the children buried in the Cemetery had been in the Asylum Hospital prior to their deaths it would be reasonable to assume that they were either buried in the clothes they were wearing while in the hospital or that they were wrapped in sheets for burial. There is no physical evidence to suggest that they were dressed in either personal clothing or in burial clothes such as shrouds, however if the latter were employed then the fabric probably would not have survived.

5.7 Osteological Studies Collections of the bones of children are very rarely available for study. For this reason the remains, both partial and complete, of sixty-five individuals from the Asylum Cemetery were deemed to be scientifically important

The skeletal remains were initially cleaned and conserved in the laboratory at the site. They were then taken to the Shellshear Museum of Anatomy (University of Sydney) for further conservation and for study. The severity of root action, coupled with the acidity of the sandy soils, had seriously damaged many of the bones. However useful information was still latent in the teeth (which resist mechanical and chemical damage) and in the surviving bones.

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The age identification of juvenile remains is normally based on analysing the degree of formation and eruption of the teeth. Two such 'competing' methods were applied to the remains from the Asylum Cemetery. They were in broad agreement. The most commonly occurring age groups were 4, 5 and 6 years. One contribution that the study made to method and theory is the finging that the relatively simple dental aging method of Schour and Massler gives results that are as accurate as the more complex method of Demirjian and colleagues.

Identifying- the sex of juvenile skeletal remains is a notoriously difficult and uncertain procedure. The traditional morphological methods (chiefly dental discriminant analysis) and the newer DNA methods were applied to the Asylum Cemetery. Two sorts of agreement were studied - that between the morphological and DNA methods, and that between both methods and the sex of those children tentatively identified from the burial records. In the cours.e of the study, some advances in dental sex identification were made. _Nevertheless the agreement between the methods remained relatively low, confirming the general pessimism that pervades the scientific literature.

There was some possibility that Aboriginal children were buried at the cemetery. For this reason thorough attempts were made to identify the race of the individual skeletons. Under the best of circumstances, racial identification of juveniles is an uncertain task. However the studies done on the Asylum Cemetery, including those of dental and cranial form, do not suggest that any Aboriginal children were present among the excavated individuals. All appear to be Caucasoid in origin.

None of the graves had any surviving identifications, such as gravestones or coffin plates. However thirty­ nine of the burials are tentatively identified by matching the cross correlation of the sequences of burial documents and the sequences of dental ages in the partially surviving cemetery rows. All the identifications relate to the Roman Catholic part of the Asylum cemetery, since the Protestant part had been too badly disturbed by later developments at the site.

The dentally estimated ages of the children were used to evaluate their stature and rate of growth. The standards used come from 3,200 North American children in the 1930s. The children from the Asylum showed both markedly shorter stature and slower rates of growth.

Signs of injury and specific diseases were looked for, but the poor state of preservation of the bones preclUded any findings.

The general state of health of the children was investigated by examining stress indicators such as porotic hyperostosis (small holes in the bone, particularly in the eye sockets), dental hypoplasia (bands of faulty dental enamel) and Harris Unes (bands of arrested growth in the long bones), all of which may result from either nutritional stress and disease, or both.

These studies show that the children suffered from stress, commonly between 0-3 years and before most of them arrived at the asylum. These results are consistent with the historical evidence, which suggests the diet in the asylum was adequate and probably an improvement for many.

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5.8 Endnotes

1WB Field Book No 1898 (1891). 2No formal gazettal of the area for use as a Cemetery has been located. " 3All death certificates associated with the children buried in the Cemetery carry the name of a clergyman. 4 Kevin Brown & Associates 1994, 'Plan of the Cemetery and Archaeological Grid, Destitute Children's Asylum, Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick', based on WB Field Book No. 1898. 5'The Randwick Asylum', IllustratedSydneyNews, 17 April 1890, p.21. 6WB Field Book No 1898 (1891). 7 SydneyMorning Herald, 26 February 1866, p.2. 8The Randwick Asylum', Illustrated Sydney News, 17 April 1890, p.21; Lists of plants sent from the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, do survive but no specific references are made to the locations in which they were planted. 9File Note W.AA, 6 June 1918; Chief Secretary's Department - Letters received 1918, AONSW 5/7962. 10 Photograph 'NoA A.G.H. Early Days', C.L.S. Macintosh, "Re-Building Billjim", in Remnants from RandwickNo. 4 1919, pA6. 11 This was Burial 37 - see description in the Burial Report, Volume 2, Section 2.0. 12Weston 1989, Rookwood Necropolis, Church of England 53 acres, Roman Catholic 39 acres (ratio 1.0:1.35), combined Protestant 75 acres. 13NSW Legislative Council V&P 1875-76, Randwick Asylum Board of Inquiry - Report of the Board and Minutes ofEvidence, 2 August 1876, p.969. 14The witnesses are those named. on the death certificates and did not necessarily reflect the full ·adult funeral party. In one instance, that of the burial of Mary Jane Sloane (31 March, 1867), the witnesses were Asylum employees and not her mother, who was herself an assistant at the Asylum. 15NSW Death Certificate - John Marshall Wilkie 1884 No 4839. 16File Notes WAA. 6 June 1918, Chief Secretary's Department - Letters Received 1918, AONSW 5/7962. 17Sydney Gazette, 29 January 1820. 18Arrangements were undertaken in 1918 for the re-interment of any skeletal remains uncovered during the site levelling programme with the remains "held for re-interment when the whole area has been dealt with", Chief Secretary's Department Letters Received 1918 Under Secretary Public Works Department to Under Secretary, Public Health, 22 July 1918, AONSW 5/7962. 19During this period there were six instances when two Roman Catholic burials occurred on the same day. A total of sixty-three children of all denominations died during this period; Curson 1985, pp.69-70.. 2°Burials 10, 32, 33, 41, 42, 57 and 58. 21 File Notes W.A.A. 6 June 1918, Chief Secretary's Department - Letters Received 1918, AONSW 5/7962. 22 Sydney Gazette, 22 December 1810, p.2. 23 Burial 9 provided a large sample of timber but this had decomposed to the extent that the observable grain had disappeared and the structure of the timber had collapsed. 24 Identification of the timber was based on grain, sheen, colour and hardness. Microscopic analysis of the timber was unavailable during the period of analysis. 25Solid boards 1" thick were to be used at the Tarban Creek Asylum as directed by the Colonial Architect; NSW Colonial Architect's Office Records, Lunatic Asylum - Tarban Creek, 1864-66, AONSW 2/603. 26NSW Colonial Architect's Office Records, Lunatic Asylum - Tarban Creek, 1864-66, AONSW 2/603. 27Memoirs of Caroline Law quoted in Fitzgerald 1994, p.37 - "She remembers playing with a friend on the steps of the 'coffin shop' and exclaiming over the tiny blue coffins in the window, a reminder of the area's high infant mortality". 28 Three categories of single-break coffin were identified; A- width of head board and foot board equivalent (2 examples); B- head board wider than foot board (27 examples); and C- foot board wider than head board (4 examples). 29Burials 1, 2, 3, 5, 61 and 65 had experienced varying degrees of mechanical damage.

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30Philippe Aries 1981, The Hourof OurDeath, Oxford University Press, Oxford, p.24. 31Ibid., p.14. 32AII of these priests are of Irish origins apart from Father Garavel, a French Marist. 33Displaced copper alloy pins were recovered from two further burials (Burials 20 and 65). A button was found in association with Burial 20 suggesting that the pin recovered from the same burial was associated with a jaw cloth rather than a sheet.

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_ Res.earch Design

The following section discusses the results obtained during the course of the project, in relation to research issues and specific questions presented in the Research Design. '"

6.1 Initial 6.1.1 Research Design

A preliminary research design for the Prince of Wales Project was submitted with the offer of services in JUly, 1995. This document represented a preliminary evaluation of the site's potential as a research resource, and was prepared in order to initiate archaeological investigation at the site quickly.

The proposed research framework took into consideration the highly specialised nature of the site, particularly its pQtential osteological resource. It recognised that the scope for research on the Cemetery extended beyond the sphere of most archaeological projects undertaken in Australia. As a result, the preliminary research design was intended to be refined following documentary enquiry and consultation with potential users of information gathered during the archaeological program.

6.2 Amended Research Design An amended draft Research Design was submitted in September, 1995. This document was prepared for the South Eastem Sydney Area Health Service, the NSW Heritage Council and the NSW Department of Urban Affairs and Planning in partial fulfilment of the conditions of the Excavation Permit issued by the project pursuant to the NSW Heritage Act. This draft was further revised after review by the Heritage Branch of the Department of Urban Affairs and Planning.

The final Research Design for the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery archaeological excavation includes a detailed outline of the research component for the work at the site. It discusses the aims of research on the site and its contents, and the reasons for the investigation.

No significant changes were made to the aims, scope and methodology proposed in the original preliminary Research Design submitted in July, 1995. However, the final Research Design does incorporate a number of significant structural modifications to the research framework which were made in an attempt to integrate various lines of investigation proposed by specialists associated with the excavation team.

6.3 Response to Research Questions The following summary of the main findings is a brief and simplified account of the project results, based on research and analyses carried out by the members of the project team at the post excavation phase of the

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project. The research questions are divided into a series of specialist areas, each of which is addressed in the following sections.

The reader is urged to read the Archaeology Reports (Volume 2) and the Physical Anthropology Report (Volume 3) for a more comprehensive account of the project outcomes.

6.3.1 Osteology

As part of the Osteological Analysis the following work was conducted:

• X-rays of the tooth rows in order to refine estimates of the individual's age;

• Recording of tooth size data;

• Taking of measurements to allow diagnosis of sex and age;

• Organisation of comparative databases, from various studies in the literature, for evaluating sex and age in juveniles;

• Development of computerised routines to allow the measurements to be related to the comparative databases; and

• Sexing of the skeletal remains using DNA technology.

6.3.2 Social History

Burial methods, grave goods and grave fumiture as evidence for distinctions between burials during outbreaks of particular illnesses and individual deaths.

All of the graves were single inhumations. No mass burials occurred, even dUring periods of epidemic when many deaths occurred during short periods of time. All burials recovered were single earth-cut inhumations. None of the graves were lined or sealed with impermeable materials. None were subject to inter-cutting by other graves and there was no transposition of one grave across another.

Environmental factors influencing mortality or child health.

The most accessible indicators of stress proved to be malformation of the tooth enamel. The skeletal remains were too poorly preserved for fully informative analysis. However some results were obtained from a study of porosis and Harris Lines. This evidence clearly suggested that the children were suffering from nutritional stress or the effects of disease or both. The frequencies of dental enamel hypoplasia and porotic hyperostosis occurrence suggest the children were subjected to some kind of stress at very young ages (0-3 years), probably due to weaning and probably before many arrived at the asylum. These results are consistent with the evidence from skeletal measurements which showed a clear retardation of skeletal growth. The results are also consistent with the historical evidence which suggests the diet in the Asylum was adequate and probably an

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improvement for many. Unfortunately many of the children did not have the time to benefit from this improved diet.

The influence of the institution in regard to burial methods and distinctions made according to the deceased's religious affiliations, gender or ethnicity. .•..

Although the site was'used specifically for the purposes of burial there is no indication to suggest that the Cemetery was gazetted as a burying ground. There is also no evidence to indicate that the site was formally consecrated despite the fact that all recorded burials were accompanied by a religious service.

None of the contemporary plans of the Cemetery provided any information regarding its intemal configuration, although such a plan may have been used during the period in which interments took place. Excavation revealed that the graves were arranged in north-south rows with the individual burials aligned east west. The use of regimented rows was a standard practice in most early- and mid-nineteenth century burial grounds in New South Wales. The layout of later, municipal cemeteries abandoned this arrangement in favour of configurations mirroring the design of parks and gardens.

Two main concentrations of burials were observed; twenty burials in five rows in the north and forty­ four burials in five rows in the south. These two groups were separated by a 6.5m wide zone across which the burial rows did not extend. Each row was separated by 1m to 1.5m and each burial in a row was separated by 1.5m to 1.75m.

In nineteenth-eentury Australia municipal and institutional burial grounds were usually divided on sectarian lines. Exceptional cases being those attached to penal settlements such as Norfolk Island, Maria Island and Port Arthur. It would be reasonable to assume that the Asylum Cemetery was divided on similar lines - the principal divisions being Protestant and Roman Catholic.

The death certificates indicate that the Protestants, no matter which denomination, were buried according to the rites of the Church of England. Although the Asylum was a non-sectarian institution it was poly-eonfessional, allowing the children to participate in either the rites of the Church of England or the Church of Rome.

Examination of the age and sex of the individuals buried in the Cemetery with the registered burials of Roman Catholic and Protestant children revealed identifiable sequences indicating sectarian division of the burial ground. This suggested that the northem part of the Cemetery was occupied by Protestants and the southem portion by Catholics. The two burial areas were, however of unequal size. That allotted to the Roman Catholics amounted to approximately 720m2 while that allotted to the Church of England consisted of 1315m2. The remaining 156m2 of the total area of the Cemetery formed a non-denominational zone between the two.

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The disparity between areas allotted to Roman Catholics and Church of England interments (ratio 1.0 : 1.82) is reflected in other burial grounds in Sydney, however it is unclear whether or not this reflects the general demographics of the Colony, or the demographics of the Asylum.

If the Cemetery was indeed divided between Protestants and Roman Catholics then the Asylum registers and death certificates indicate that 12? Church of England and 52 Roman Catholic burials took place.

Burial practices in the Asylum compared to the public in general.

No precise measurements for the depth of burial beneath the original surface could be determined due to various subtractive processes undertaken in 1918 and 1994. Projection of the surviving topsoil surface and assessment of the notional original slope of the dune enabled approximate depths of burial to be calculated. These appear to have varied between 500mm and 900m below the original ground surface. This is a relatively shallow depth and may have been determined in part by the unstable matrix into which the graves were cut.

Twenty-one of the graves had a precise rectangular shape, four were rectangular but flared at the head end, four were rectangular and flared at the foot end, and two flared at both ends. The flaring at the base of the grave cut suggests collapse of the end of the grave and may have resulted from the grave digger climbing out of the grave, or as a result of a deliberate step being cut in order to permit egress. Eleven graves had an irregular shape resulting from either collapse of the sides during digging or filling.

No grave markers were observed during the current investigation. This may indicate that no grave markers were employed or that the grave markers were of a non-durable material placed on or close to the surface. Altematively, trimming of the topsoil in 1918 and 1994 may have removed all traces of markers.

All intact graves were oriented east-west.

Sixty-two of the sixty-five burials recovered were buried in coffins. The remaining three burials had undergone significant physical damage resulting in dispersal of the skeletal rem~ins.

Six burials produced timber fragments that were tentatively identified as Australian Cedar (Toona australis). The coffin timbers were 32mm thick, or 1" boards. No evidence was observed to indicate surface finishing.

No metal fittings such as handles or name plates were associated with any of the recovered coffins. All of the coffins were nailed rather than fixed by screws, pegs or staples.

Four coffin forms were identified: box (1 example, 2.6%), single break (33 examples, 86.8%), rectangular (2 examples, 5.3%), and trapezoidal (2 examples, 5.3%).

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Fifty-nine of the in situ burials survived in a condition that permitted the general position and orientation of the body to be recorded. All fifty-nine were in an extended supine position with the head facing upwards. Fifty-five, of these fifty-nine had their heads located at the westem end of the coffin, that is facing east. The remaining five all had their heads in the eastern end ofJ,QE;! coffin. These were all located in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery ','

Thirty-three of the skeletons had their arms extended by their sides, four had their hands resting on their pelvis, one had its hands resting on the lumbar region, one had its arms folded across its chest, and one had its arms flexed medially resting on the chest with the hands pointed towards the Skllll.

Three main types of grave goods were recovered; buttons, pins and a single set of rosary beads.

The buttons consisted of one or two buttons located on the upper thorax, cervical vertebrae or adjacent to the mandible. These positions suggest fastening of garments at the throat or shoulder at either the ·front or back. No buttons were located on the lower thorax, limbs or pelvic region. The Sl;l.me configuration of buttons was found on both male and female skeletons suggesting that they were associated with non-gender specific garments. These may have been shirts or night shirts. No evidence was recovered to suggest that more than one type of button was present in any single . .~ - grave indicating that the use of more than one garment is unlikely.

In three burials copper alloy pins were found on the upper thorax suggesting the wrapping of a cloth around the body, fastened by pins at the front. This may indicate the use of a winding sheet in which the body was wrapped, with the edges folded and fastened at the front beneath the throat.

Six examples were recovered in which copper alloy pins were located in the occipital, temporal and parietal areas of the cranium. Their presence and location are consistent with jaw cloths passing from the top of the cranium and beneath the jaw, fastened at either the top or the side. The use of the jaw cloth was often employed if the body was to be .viewed prior to being sealed. It is unclear if this was the intention in the Asylum cases or if it was a custom considered appropriate for the dressing of the body whether viewed or not.

The general absence of fastenings such as buttons and pins may indicate that many of the bodies were clothed in garments with non-durable fastenings such as laces, or wrapped in sheets. The soil conditions on the site did not aid the preservation of fabric and only four examples of cloth were recovered.

In laying out the Asylum dead none appear to have been provided with footwear for burial. Since most of the children buried in the Cemetery were inmates of the Asylum Hospital prior to their deaths it would be reasonable to assume that they were buried in clothes they were wearing while in hospital or wrapped in sheets for burial. There is no evidence to suggest that they were dressed in either their usual daywear or in specific burial clothes such as shrouds.

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No personal possessions associated with the .burials were- recovered except for a set of rosary beads found entwined around the right hand of one of the burials.

The location of the Cemetery and the position of the burials within it in regard to earlier beliefs regarding health.

The location of the Cemetery at a distance from the main Asylum buildings and partly obscured by the rise of the dune may have been the result of the need to separate this most visible aspect of death from the living. The Asylum relied heavily on public subscription for its continued operation and a prominently located cemetery may not have been considered the best means of promoting the 'child-saving' aims of the organisation.

During the period when the Cemetery was in use the belief in the mephitic influence of decay associated with burial grounds was still current. Decay and its resultant odour were associated with disease and more particularly with epidemic outbreaks of disease. Locating the Cemetery in a well ventilated location may also have been considered dUring the period when planning associated with establishment of the burial ground occurred.

More pragmatic reasons for the location of the Cemetery may have been associated with topography and soils. The area set aside for the Cemetery was on exposed, undulating ground having poor sandy soils and may have been considered to be uns~itable for agricultural purposes.

The orientation of the burials and the position of.the bodies therein as indicators of religious/cultural activities now no longer observed.

Placement of the body on its back was the usual practice in Europe and this practice was continued at the Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery. The orientation of the body with its head in the westem end of the coffin, facing the east was established as a Christian tradition in Europe by the Fourteenth Century. The philosophy underlying this practice appears to have been related to the necessity for the dead to face Jerusalem in preparation for the Last Judgement. This tradition was transferred to the Australasian colonies with the original purpose being lost in the process. An early example, the Old Sydney Burial Ground, contained vaults with coffins placed in an east/west orientation with head in the west. Variations in orientation observed in the larger municipal cemeteries of the later Nineteenth Century appear to have been the result of landscaping considerations wherein graves were aligned with serpentine walks and gardens.

Five examples of burials were recovered with their heads placed in the east and no ready explanation for this practice is apparent. Four of these burials appear to have been interred in sequence in the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery, perhaps suggesting that a common factor was at work for these burials. The individuals interred in these burials have not been identified, however they were all interred after 1875, the year of the last reliably dated burial in the Roman Catholic burial sequence. Such a change in orientation may be related to a particular individual such as the officiating priest or grave digger.

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The physical form of the Cemetery and its place within the Asylum.

The physical and documentary evidence for enclosure of the site suggests that the Cemetery site had one purpose only - that associated with the disposal of the dead. It consisted of an area of land located 290m southwest of the main Asylum bUildings. The area designated for the use as a burial ground consisted of a rectangular space measuring 91.3m (north/south) by 24m (east/west). The long axis of the Cemetery was aligned close to True North. The apparent care taken in determining the alignment of the 'Cemetery close to True North implies some formal alienation of the land within the Asylum property.

During the course of the archaeological investigation evidence of nine fence posts was recovered in a line along the westem margin of the Cemetery. The location of these precisely matched the surveyed Cemetery boundary lines recorded originally in 1891.

The fence posts were spaced at approximately 2.5m intervals although two were only one metre apart perhaps indicating an opening in the fence in this position. The dimensions of the posts and their spacing are consistent with a post-and-rail fence. This configuration accords with descriptions of the Cemetery in 1890 in which it was referred to as being 'railed-off' rather than fenced.

The survey of 1891 also indicated that a small brick structure with buttressed comers was located in the southem third of the Cemetery, near the eastem boundary. Although no use was ascribed to " ~' this structure in the contemporary documentation it appears to have functioned as a Sexton's lodge or hut. These buildings form part of the infrastructure of most cemeteries and are often simply used for storage of tools used during interment. No trace of the structure was recovered during excavation and it appears that the site· of the building may have been down-eut and levelled in 1918.

Maintenance of the Cemetery and its plantings.

In 1890 the Cemetery was described as being 'prettily planted' and 'shady-looking'. Topsoil capable of supporting vegetation survived along the westem margin of the Cemetery but it was impossible to distinguish between the remains of trees and shrubs growing in ,and around the Cemetery site before or after its alienation as a burying ground. The palynological evidence from one of the burials located close to the westem boundary of the site did not provide unequivocal evidence for introduced decorative plantings. Native species dominated the sample indicating either partial regrowth when the Cemetery was in use or immediately followings closure of the Asylum.

By 1918, the site was reported to be 'thinly grassed' and a photograph of the site at this time suggests that any substantial plantings had either been deliberately removed, or allowed to have been overtaken by grass cover.

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Parts of the Cemetery may also have been provided with pathways. A north/south alignment of sandstone quarry waste on the former topsoil was observed near the southwest boundary of the Cemetery. This feature was approximately 1.3m wide and was located between the westem boundary fence and the first row of burials approximately 1.8m from the fence line. This 'path' survived for a length of 5.5m. A similar, although smaller feature was identified further to the north. These two features suggest that a pathway may have been established around the perimeter of the burial ground.

6.3.3 Prehistory

The prehistoric archaeological investigation was undertaken in conjunction with the historical archaeological investigation of the area. The investigation comprised archaeological excavation and feature/site retrieval within the Cemetery area and sample or test excavation by machine trenching, of land to the west and south of the Cemetery area. The archaeological evidence of the Aboriginal occupation of the site is contained within leached white aeolian sand deposits which underly the Asylum occupation deposits. There is no evidence that the Aboriginal people interacted with the early Europeans at this place.

The evidence for prehistoric use of the site by Aboriginal people was more extensive than predicted in the project research design. Information has been obtained relating to the age/date of use and the type of food resource concemed.

A deflated Aboriginal hearth dated to approximately 8,000BP was subject to detailed recording and salvaged from the westem portion of Area 1. A radiocarbon date on charcoal recovered adhering to a hearth stone and a thermoluminescence date from an actual hearth stone provided dates of 7,860 +/- 50 BP and 8,400 +/- 800 BP, respectively, which are consistent. Analysis of the fats on a hearth stone have shown the hearth was used to cook an aquatic protein meal, possibly freshwater fish. The absence of all other food remains such as shell fish or bone is explained by the age and acidity of deposit. The absence of stone implements associated with the hearth indicates, as predicted, a sporadic occupation of the dune margins where exploitation of the local resources, particularly of the swamp or wetland areas, are likely to have been effected by an undurable wood or shell tool-kit.

Archaeological evidence from the late Holocene and the historically recent ethnography, suggests that group mobility was low for most of the year, exploiting a range of marine and terrestrial resources. These groups were not fully sedentary and were prepared to depopulate locally to offset short periods of resource stress. This depopulation was along the coast and does not seem to have involved mass inland movement. Whether this was a desire by groups to maintain a coastal economy or represented a response to territoriality is not known at this point and may be beyond the scope of future archaeological evidence.

The Aboriginal site at the POW Hospital does not fit a model of low mobility or permanent or semi­ permanent site occupation. Both permanent and semi-permanent occupation sites are characterised by high numbers of flaking debris, and a high diversity of raw materials and tool types. Short-term occupation sites formed during periods of higher mobility lack raw material diversity and are composed of few flakes

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and tools. The proposition put forward here, is that this site was formed under conditions of high mobility, perhaps the result of shorMerm forays, and represents a different settlement a'1d subsistence pattem to that observed at contact and in the archaeological record during the last 3,000 years.

Examination of pollen associated with the deflated hearth was not conducted as remains of"..this were absent.

At a technological level the two hypotheses proposed for the low numbers of stone flakes and the absence of stone tools at the site are:

1) that stone tools were not important or necessary to the subsistence or other economic tasks undertaken at this site or that a shell tool-kit, which has not been preserved, fulfilled the role of stone tools and flakes, or;

2) a portable stone tool-kit, possibly a cobble/core technology, was carried into the site and used to -, maintain a tool-kit made of wood. The rate of use and incidence of breakage, however, was very low .'leaving no broken or exhausted tools behind. This scenario would also imply that the wooden tool-kit was either relatively fresh, requiring little or no maintenance, or that this tool-kit was not placed under a

~-..-- • great deal of stress during use. \-- .... 6.3.4 Contemporary Aboriginal Interests

The site provides a means for the local Aboriginal community to participate in the investigation of both their pre- and post-eontact history. In both areas of research, links with the past have been renewed.

Prehistoric data gathered during the course of the excavation has had the benefit of increasing the local Aboriginal community's appreciation and understanding of their past. The LALC was represented throughout the course of both the historic and prehistoric excavations by their Sites Officer, Mr David Ingrey. There were several on-site visits by members of the Executive so that they could make informed decisions regarding the NSW NPWS Permit Application.

The stone hearth (Feature 203) recovered during excavation is to be reco~structed at Yarra Bay House as an educational tool for the local Community.

Attempts were made to develop techniques enabling Aboriginality to be determined without the use of an invasive methodology on the skeletons. These non-invasive methods included investigation of tooth size and cranial shape. Neither method supported the presence of any Aboriginal skeletal remains. No invasive methods were used to attempt to determine Aboriginality. DNA analysis was used in the determination of age only.

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6.3.5 Techniques

The degree of skeletal degradation as a product of factors such as the deceased's age, depth of burial, changing pH and variations in exposure to percolating groundwater due to the presence of buildings above some burials and not others.

The human skeletal material recovered from the Randwick Asylum site was in generally poor condition. Much of the bone consisted of stained sand or only the friable outer table of the bone.

Intrinsic factors cQntributing to the poor condition of the skeletal remains include the fact that the population was exclusively pre-adult. Such a population will have generally lower bone mass and density. External factors influencing the condition of the human skeletal remains include both environmental factors associated with soil and climate, and cultural factors including mortuary practises and post-interment site modification.

Despite the fact that the Cemetery was located within a sand d~ne no evidence was observed for large scale slumping or failure of the soil profile. Where slumping occurred it was localised within individual graves. It most often took the form of collapse of the burial as a whole as it settled into voids located beneath the coffin, or by the failure of the coffin as the grave fill settled and the timbers decomposed. Voids beneath the coffin result from the grave digging process. Waterloo rock, when encountered at the bases of grave cuts tended to separate from the matrix in large lumps creating an uneven grave floor.

Swelling and shrinking of burial matrix has been recognised as a mechanism responsible for the crushing of skeletal material, however this is most often observed in heavy clay soils that have a high shrink-swell ratio. There are a number of soil profiles in the Sydney region that undergo significant volumetric expansion, however the soils at the Asylum Cemetery have an extremely low shrink-swell ratio. The white sand unit (052) has a volumetric expansion of 2%, Waterloo rock (054) 1% to 5%, and the massive yellow sand (053) 2%. These low rates are probably not enough to account for the compression and crushing observed in a large number of the skeletons recovered.

The Asylum soil profile is extremely permeable allowing water to move down the profile without resistance. With such movement unconsolidated sands in the sub-A1 horizons may be transported into any void that may exist at a lower level. The largest voids in the Cemetery were provided by the coffin and the vault of the cranium. Invasion of these voids was frequently manifested in a lateral movement of grave fill. This lateral disturbance of burials was most often observed in burials set in, or on the surface of the Waterloo rock. The downward movement of settling grave fill appears to have been translated into some lateral movement across the surface of the Waterloo rock. This'lateral movement had the effect of staving-in the side panels of coffins and compressing skeletal material. It is difficult to distinguish between the natural invasion of the coffin by sand and the resulting pressure exerted on the skeletal material from referred pressure on the surface of the site during machine-assisted site clearing work. The compression of the cranium associated with

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Burial 17 for example suggests translated, lateral compression by sand on the cranial vault prior to the time when the vault filled with sand.

Soil Chemistry

Bone, particularly sub-adult bone, is susceptible to decay and decomposition in an acidic environment. The effect of acids on bone results in dissolution of inorganic matrix leaving behind organic material. This is then susceptible to leaching and separation from its original position in the burial.

The general soil profile of the site formed part of the extensive fixed dune system referred to as the Tuggerah Soil Landscape. The pH of horizons within this particular soil profile type is usually in the range of 5.5 to 7.0, that is moderately acidic to neutral. Examination of an intact profile on site, immediately adjacent to the western boundary of the Cemetery produced pH readings of a much more acidic nature ranging from 4.5 to 5.06. This reduced pH was present despite the covering of the profile by fill containing alkalising materials such as lime and wood-ash. This is a pH range unlikely to a~sist the preservation of skeletal material.

'" ...... ~ The pH of -grave fills indicated generally lower pH levels, and a pattern of pH modification that appears to be related to cultural activities on the site. The pH samples varied frElm 3.03 (Burial No. . -- 9) to 5.62 (Burial No. 3). This is in the range from extremely acidic to acidic. More than 70% of the burials provided pHs ranging between 3.03 and 4.5. The variation of pH levels within the graves followed an observable pattern suggesting that those located beneath huts had a generally lower pH than those in the inter-hut spaces.

The undisturbed profile is poorly buffered and heavily leached making it subject to pH variation when alkalising materials are introduced. The pH readings for graves located beneath huts indicate that the'normal pH level for the undisturbed profile in the period before 1918 was probably in the range 3.03 to 4.5. The construction of huts above these graves had the effect of preventing alkalising materials from entering the profile, except possibly during construction phases when concrete pads were poured on, or near a small number of graves. Some of the graves located in , the inter-hut spaces were covered with topsoil dressing containing small amounts of wood ash, boiler ash and a lime fraction. This had the effect of raising pH readings to as high as 5.36 (Burial No. 37), which is nevertheless, an acidic level.

The extreme acidity of the profile within the Cemetery may have been exacerbated by its function as a Cemetery. Periodic bum-off would have ceased following clearance of the site and wood ash would have ceased entering the profile. Its non-agricultural use would also have prevented lime being introduced to aid crop growth.

The freeze-thaw episodes of the type that have such significant effects on burials in Europe and North America are not relevant to the Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum burials. The climate is temperate with average monthly temperatures varying between 28° to 18° in summer, and from 16°

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to 5.30 in winter. Air temperatures may fall below 50 but freezing of the ground does not occur, the site is within the coastal regime and exposed to southerly and westerly winds. These relatively warm temperatures and the moderate range of temperatures suggest that chemical reactions within the soil are not arrested in winter to the extent experienced with frozen soils. The warm summer temperatures are also likely to result in accelerated rates of chemical decay during this season.

Ground Water

Water has been recognised as a significant factor in the process of skeletal degradation. In some instances it may be the most important factor in bone'degradation. All burials at the Cemetery were located above the water table. Water movement through the soils at the Asylum site is almost exclusively downward through a porous matrix in an extreme leaching environment. This may have resulted in a significant demineralisation of the skeletal material, weakening the bone structure and exposing it to further degradation by other processes. The discussion of soil pH above, would tend to confirm the active leaching mechanism to which the soil profile was sUbject. Variations in pH between graves located undemeath huts and those outside huts indicate active leaching down the profile in the exposed areas and arrested leaching in the covered areas. No evidence was observed to suggest that the skeletal remains were laterally displaced by water movement.

Vegetation

Three trees of significant size with substantial root systems appear to have influenced the condition of a number of burials. The largest was a Port Jackson Fig (Ficus rubiginosa) planted in the late 1950s within the former cemetery boundary. This species does not have a tap-root but relies on a massive buttress root system for support. A system ofsmaller roots surrounded by fine, feeder rootlets extends from the buttress roots and these were found concentrated in the burials and generally absent in the spaces between burials. The root system associated with this particular tree influenced burials within a 14m radius of the tree's centre. The buttress roots and the thicker feeder roots were often wrapped around, and through burials, resulting in both the displacement and crushing of skeletal remains.

The sheer mass of some of these roots applied a direct downward pressure on a number of burials. The fine rootlets often formed tight concentrations within the burial, their postion on the skeleton being marked by the complete disappearance of the bone beneath, such as the case of Burial No. 41. Similarly, the cranium of Burial No. 50, located directly beneath the centre of the tree was covered by a mass of very fine roots to the extent that much of the outer table of the skull had vanished while the cranium itself was perforated by larger roots.

Other rootlets filled voids within the skeleton, such as the vault of the cranium and the long bones simultaneously resulting in both physical support for these elements yet weakening the bone structure itself. The osteophagous effect associated with the Fig roots was localised within

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individual graves and does not appear to have altered the pH within the grave as a whole nor within the soils in the general vicinity of the tree itself. .

The root system associated with a 35-year old Canary Island Palm (Phoenix canariensis), formed a shallow mat of closely-packed, 10mm diameter feeder roots extending up to 13m from the centre of the tree. These roots were generally invasive across the southern part of the burial area and did not form individual concentrated root masses or send out the very fine feeder roots of the type associated with the Fig. Their presence may have altered the physical characteristics of the bone through a chemical degradation of the skeletal material.

A Jacaranda (Jacaranda mimosaefofia) less than twentY years old, located between Huts P and R produced a root system that affected surrounding soil deposits within a radius of apprOXimately 10m. The precise influence this particular tree had on the burials within its root bowl is difficult to determine due to the mechanically disturbed nature of the deposits in its immediate vicinity.

Faunal ActiVity

The largest animals likely to cause any significant effect on the burials in t,his region (apart from humans) are dogs and rabbits. No evidence was observed to suggest that either animal was active on the site to the extent that physical disruption of the burials occurred.

Evidence of faunal disturbance of human skeletal material was confined to rodent activity - viz

.1 burrowing and chewing bone. Limited redistribution of bone appears to have resulted from transportation by rodents.

Fungus

Fungal activity was recognised as a significant biological cause of tissue and skeletal destruction at the Spitalfields excavation in England. At the Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery a patchy reddish material was observed on the cranium of Burial No. 44, however this could not be definitively associated with fungal activity. The mass of fine rootlets encasing the cranium of Burial No. 50 also appeared to contain fungal hyphae, further matting the fig roots over the bone and possibly contributing to the decay of the outer table.

Taphonomic factors in relationship to current forensic investigative methods - the problem of 'time elapsed since death'.

The site formation processes and the taphonomic problems associated with the observed burials are now well understood. A number of processes are capable of quantification, allowing comparison with the state of preservation of the skeletal remains. Any patterns emerging from such a comparison have the potential to provide information relating to the problem of time elapsed since death.

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The creation of a series of models using age/sex indicators to reconstruct burial sequences in order to identify individual children.

A preliminary sequence of burials was developed and tested in the field during the excavation program. As a result it was possible to identify a number of the children's remains recovered. This is only true for the Roman Catholic section of the Cemetery. Considerable progress was made regarding personal identification via computerised methods of cross correlation on dental age and age recorded in burial records. By this method thirty-nine out of sixty-five burials were assigned names of known individuals.

Recovery and recording techniques.

A range of excavation methodologies were employed during investigations within the cemetery. These are described in detail in Volume 2, Part 1, Section 5.0.

In general terms, it was considered that the excavation methods adopted for the recovery of burials were both efficient and successful in terms of the retrieval of human skeletal remains, with minimal loss of integrity. These methods also ensured that the process of burial recovery was conducted with dignity and respect.

Recording techniques adopted are considered to have resulted in a high level of recovery of locational/spatial information regarding burials.

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_ Interpretation Guidelines

The following Interpretation Guidelines were prepared in May 1996, following completion of onsite archaeological investigations. They are intended to provide a rational brief for both onsite .. iilnd other interpretation/presentation of the history and significance of the site.1

7.1 General • The Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery will be retained as an identifiable 'place'. • The Cemetery will be modified to become a commemorative area, created within the boundaries of the original Cemetery. • The commemorative area will include reburied remains of the Asylum children. • .,' The commemorative area will have a special identity from other open spaces within the Prince of Wales Hospital, but should be related to other landscape areas through design, materials and plantings.

7.2 Messages • The place is a burial ground. • The burial ground was part of the Asylum. • The place has also been used by Aboriginal people. • There are other aspects of the history of the place. • Although modified the place has been treated respectfully.

7.3 Information 7.3.1 On Site •A short history/historical overview. • The names of the buried/deceased children. • The physical relationship between Cemetery and Asylum buildings. • Physical indication of the reburial area. • Indication of Aboriginal (prehistoric) use.

7.3.2 At the Asylum Buildings • More extensive historical information. • The names of all known Asylum inmates.

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7.3.3 Off Site/Other Locations

•A brochure about the Asylum and Cemetery.

•A temporary exhibition about the Cemetery project.

7.4 Design Parameters 7.4.1 Concepts

• The commemorative area should be presented as a place for children.

• The idea of providing a children's garden is recommended as consistent with the significance of the place, future uses and stakeholder wishes. It is also a use known to have occurred historically at the site.

• One or more strong visual icons should be included. A child's statue or simple piece of sculpture would be appropriate.

• There should be no formal monument - information devices should be subservient to the commemorative area landscape.

7.4.2 Form and Scale

• The commemorative area should be confined within the original Cemetery and should extend fully between eastem and western Cemetery boundaries.

• The boundary between the commemorative area and the remaining patient garden area should be physically and/or visually defined.

• The overall structure should be rectilinear, reflecting the original Cemetery layout and subsequent format of hospital huts.

• The commemorative area should be visually screened from the road and carpark to the north.

• Design elements should be of a modest, human scale.

7.4.3 Materials

• The white sand retained from the site (c.100 cubic metres) should be used in the reburial area. (It may be used as a visible element.)

• Paving elements or other masonry features should be selected for visual appeal and sensitivity.

• Interpretive devices (eg. signs or plaques) should be of a visually non-intrusive material and finish.

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7.4.4 Plantings

• Plantings should include locally indigenous species.

• Plantings should inGlude one or more of the Ficus hi/Hi propagated from the specimen which was formerly part of the site, and the Phoenix palm which was also formerly adjacent to the site.

• Exotic species may be used - particularly if the children's garden concept is pursued.

• Exotic species already present on the Prince of Wales Hospital site should be selected in preference to new species.

• (Post excavation research revealed a description of the site in 1890 "as a prettily-planted shady-looking plof'. Plantings which reflect this description should be selected for the site).

7.5 Access • Access to the commemorative area should always be available to any person.

• The design of the commemorative area should encourage access to and use by Barker Special Care Centre patients, for passive recreation purposes.

7.6 Media • On site interpretation should use low-key media such as plaques, discreetly placed signs and an evocative statue or monument.

7.7 Relationship With Hospital • The design of the commemorative area and the presentation and interpretation of the history and significance of the place should be addressed as part of the overall interpretation of the AsylUm/Prince of Wales Hospital. This approach should be reflected in both messages presented and the palette of devices and materials used to present them.

7.8 Endnotes

I Subsequent to writing the Interpretation Guidelines post excavation historical research revealed a description of the site in April 1890 "as a prettily-planted shady-looking plot". This important description should be incorporated as a major interpretive theme when considering the future interpretation of the site.

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_ Report Format

The final report for the Prince of Wales Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery Excavation Project is presented in five volumes, each volume representing a different type of information recovered. from the excavation.

Volume 1 (this volume) presents an overview of the entire excavation and post-excavation processes and results.

Volume 2 contains reports on the 'excavation and post-excavation processes and findings which resulted from the project. These reports include the stratigraphic, burial and Aboriginal archaeology components. Post-excavation artefact analysis and specialist reports for soil, pollen, lipid, thermoluminescence and parasites are also included in this volume of the Report.

Volume 3 presents the results of post-excavation analysis of the human remains exhumed during excavation.

Volume 4 is the hard copy of the digitised plans from the excavation.

Volume 5 is the artefact data base, presented on computer disk for acce~sibility and retrieval.

A number of other features are included in the final reporting/archive record for the Project.

Photographic recording sheets and proofs have been presented to SESAHS.

All field notes, diaries, field drawings, stratigraphic, burial and artefact data register sheets have been lodged at the Mitchell Library Archives.

Copies of associated documentation relating to the Project have also been lodged at the Mitchell Library Archives. These include death certificates, the Asylum Register and genealogical documentation.

The skeletal remains, currently stored at the Shellshear Museum are to be delivered to the SESAHS for re­ interment.

The artefact collection, catalogued, boxed and conserved as the result of excavation and post-excavation processes has been presented to the SESAHS.

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~ References

Abbott, M. 1996, Life Cycles in England 1560-1720: Cradle to Grave, Routledge, London.

Aries, P. 1981, The HourofOurDeath, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Bickford, A 1993, Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick 1852-1!!!6. ArchaeologicalAssessment ofthe Site of the Cemetery, Prepared for Eastern Sydney Area Health SelViee.

Biekford, A 1994, Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick 1852-1916. Excavation ofthe Site ofthe Cemetery, Prepared for Eastern Sydney Area Health SelVice.

- Biekford,A 1994, Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick 1852-1916. Archaeological Manage!1]entStrategyfor the Prince ofWales HospitalRedevelopment Prepared for Eastern Sydney Area Health SelViee.

Bickford, A 1994, Destitute Children's Asylum Randwick 1852-1916. Background Information for the ESAHS, Report about the Site of the Cemetery and the Human Bones .Found- Prepared for Eastern Sydney Area Health SelVice.

Boddington, A 1987, Garland, AN. and Janaway, R.C. (eds.), Death, decay and Approaches to archaeology andforensic science, Manchester UniveiSity Press, Manchester.

Chaprnan, G.A. and Murphy, CL 1989, Soil Landscapes ofthe Sydney 1:100 000 Sheet Soil ConselVation SelVice of NSW, Sydney.

Curson, P.H. 1985, Times ofCrisis: Epidemics in Sydney. 1788-1900, Sydney University Press, Sydney..

Rtzgerald, S. and Golder, H. 1994, PyrmontandUltimo: Under Siege, Hale and Iremonger, Sydney, 1994.

Godden Mackay Pty Ltd 1991, Old Sydney Burial Ground- Sydney Town Hall Archaeological Monitoring Excavation, Prepared for the Council of the City of Sydney and the Heritage Council of NSW:

Godden Maekay Pty Ltd 1995, Randwick Destitute Children's Asylum Cemetery Statement .of Significance, 1995.

Goodwin, C., Pietrusewsky, M., Douglas, M. and Ikehara-Quebral, R. 1995, Honollllll to Honolulu: From Village to CitY- Volume Il' The Burials, International Archaeological Research Institute, Honolulu.

Gordon, C. and Buikstra, J. 1981, "Soil pH, Bone PreselVation and Sampling Bias at Mortuary Sites", American Antiquity, 46, pp.566~571.

Killarn, E. 1990, The Detection ofHuman Remains, Charles C Thomas, Springfield, Illinois.

Molleson, T. and Cox, M. 1993, The SpitalOelds Project, Volume 2 - The Anthropology, The Middling Sort, CBA Research Report 86, York.

POW Project 1995 for SESAHS - Volume 1 Page 117 Austral/Godden Mackay

Nawrocki, S 1995, ''Taphonomic Processes in Historic Cemeteries", in Grauer, A., 'ed., Bodies of Evidence, John WHey & Sons.

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