1 POLLEN ANALYSIS OF SAMPLES FROM 710-722 GEORGE STREET, HAYMARKET, SYDNEY by Mike Macphail Microfossil remnants of the 1788 forest vegetation on Brickfield Hill? Palynological report prepared 17 September 2010 for Casey & Lowe Pty. Ltd., Marrrickville Consultant Palynological Services, 13 Walu Place, Aranda. A.C.T. 2614 Ph. 02-6251-1631/02-6251-1631. E-mail [email protected] 2 1. INTRODUCTION George Street which extends from Circular Quay to Haymarket (Fig. 1), has been a (if not the) principal thoroughfare in Sydney since 1788. As such, archaeological sites along its length are in many ways an archive of its commercial history. Historical archaeological sites in the Haymarket district on the southern slopes of Brickfield Hill are strategically located to mirror this history. For example as recently as the late 1830s, the area was located at the interface between three contrasting early Colonial environments – the relatively densely settled areas to the north of, and around Brickfield Hill where bricks, tiles and pottery were manufactured until the 1820s; 'farmed' open country to south of Campbell Street; and swampland at the head of Cockle Bay/Darling Harbour, which acted as a buffer between Sydney Town and large Colonial estates such as that occupying the Ultimo Peninsula on the western side of Darling Harbour up to c. 1850 (Fig. 2). Importantly, the relative small scale of commercial developments in the Haymarket district (Fig. 1) has allowed remnants of the early Colonial landscape as well as built structures dating to the 1830s-1880s to survive under late nineteenth and early twentieth century buildings at 710-722 George Street, Haymarket (www.caseyandlowe.com.au/site:710.htm). These include: • Thomas Ball's Pottery (c. 1806-1823): The study area is adjacent to the kilns and the remains of three large pottery pits predating the 1820s were uncovered at 718 and 722 George Street. The infill included kiln furniture such as clay stilts and wedges as well as thousands of lead-glazed sherds. • Woolpack Inn (c 1830-1890): The sandstone footings of this inn and associated remnants such as a brick fireplace, underfloor deposits and a cesspit were uncovered at 720-722 George Street. • Other built structures: The well-preserved remains of nineteen century building and associated structures were found the other allotments making up the study area. Examples are: (a) The remains of an early 19th. century building and a cesspit and c. 4 m deep, infilled well at the rear of a 1860s building at 710 George Street. (b) Sandstone footings of early 19th. century buildings and cesspits of later early 19th. century buildings at 712-716 George Street. (c) The brick fireplace, postholes and an underfloor deposit of an early 19th. century building as well as the cut sandstone- lined cesspit of a later building at 718 George Street. Fig. 1: Locality map (north is on RHS of diagram) 3 Fig. 2: Map showing the European buildings and other in the vicinity of 710-722 George Street in 1836 [red triangle shows the approximate area encompassed by study area] Fig. 3: Archaeological 'footprint' of Nos. 716 and 718 George Street (2008 Excavation Summary) 4 1.1 This report The report discusses fossil spores, pollen and other plant microfossils preserved in remnant topsoil and cultural deposits preserved at 710-722 George Street (hereafter Site), on the corner of George and Campbell Streets (Figs. 1, 2). 1.2 Aims The primary aim was to determine whether fossil pollen and spores (miospores) were preserved and, if so, to use the microfossil data to: • Reconstruct the local landscape at the time of first European occupation ('1788' soil samples) • Provide an independent test of the archaeological typing of the samples (built contexts). • Explore links between environmental change and commercial and residential developments. 1.3 Samples Six (6) samples from three areas of the Site - Areas A (720-722 George Street), Area B (712-718 George Street) and Area C (710 George Street) were submitted for pollen analysis. These range in age from potentially as early as 1788 into the 1880s (Table 1). Table 1: Sample data (from Abi Cryerhall and Mike Hincks, Casey & Lowe Pty. Ltd.) AREA Sample CTX Inferred age Archaeological context 1 7323 1830s-1880s underfloor deposit, front room of Woolpack Inn A 11 7324 1830s-1880s underfloor deposit, rear room of Woolpack Inn 29 7449 1820s-1830s 'malodorous' deposit at base of a large pit B 49 7386 c. 1788 topsoil modified during the 19th. century? C 47 7472 c. 1788 topsoil sealed below Wall 2, modified during the 19th. century? 67 7569 1860s? basal fill in a c. 3-4 m deep well 1.4 Phasing Casey & Lowe (2008) have identified four occupation phases between 1788 and 1890 (Table 2). These are preceded by two earlier phases (Natural Landscape and Indigenous Occupation): Phase 3 (1788-c. 1823) during which activities in the area included brick and pottery manufacture, activities included small farming and market gardening Phase 4 (c. 1823-c. 1840) during which the area was occupied by former convicts and their families. Phase 5 (c. 1840-1860s) during which previous structures were converted or rebuilt into small shops. The area was considered to be one of the least desirable in Sydney due to low living standards and vice. Phase 6 (1860s-1890) during which the 'cleansed' area was rebuilt for larger scale commercial activities. 5 2. SUMMARY • All samples yielded statistically robust numbers of fossil pollen spores and other microfossils in organic extracts that are otherwise dominated by strongly humified and/or well-preserved plant detritus. • The fossil assemblages are unusual in being wholly dominated by casuarina (Allocasuarina/Casuarina) pollen. This can be explained in a number of ways but, apart from the subfloor samples from the Woolpack Inn, the data point to tree species of casuarina being prominent, if not dominant in forest or woodland growing on the south- facing slope of Brickfield Hill at the time of first European settlement, Contrary to early observations, there is no pollen evidence that the understorey in these forests were dominated by shrubs in 1788. • Individual casuarina trees may have survived into the 1820s or casuarina timber was used in the construction of dwellings on the Site, e.g. to make roofing shingles. The interpretation is supported by independent evidence from the Family Court Site on corner of Bathurst and Castlereagh Streets (apex of Brickfield Hill) where the stump of a casuarina is preserved in at the rear of a 1820s laundry. • Most samples preserved significant numbers of fern and fern ally spores and trace numbers of sclerophyll shrub pollen. The sources may have been plant communities growing on the banks of two nearby creeks, which drained rainwater off Brickfield Hill into the swamp at the head of Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour). Whether the Site at 710-722 George Street was prone to flooding is unknown. • The "malodorous" sediment at the base of an 1820s-1830s pit at 720-722 George Street (Area A CTX 7449) preserves microfossil evidence of raw sewage but not in sufficient numbers to confirm that this was the primary function of the pit. • Microfossils preserved in sediment at the base of the c. 4 m deep well at 710 George Street mirror those recovered from cesspit contexts elsewhere in Colonial Sydney and Parramatta. Whether the deposit is the result of an accidental spillage, an unusual event, e.g. flooding of the site, or the well began life as a cesspit is unknown. 6 3. SETTING 3.1 Natural landscape For the last 6000 years, Sydney Harbour has consisted of steep-sided sandstone promontories (some capped by shale outcrops) separated by narrow bays and valleys drained by small freshwater streams flowing into the estuary. Although now extensively reshaped by infilling and levelling over the past 200 years, the pre- 1788 landscape of the low-lying Haymarket district, which includes 710-722 George Street, is likely to have differed from areas further to the north along George Street in several important ways: • Wianamatta Shale, not Hawkesbury Sandstone, was the dominant bedrock, resulting in relatively subdued (rounded) landforms in contrast to the CBD peninsula where steeper hillsides descend via a series of structural benches. • These Triassic shales weather to form iron- and clay-rich podzolic soils that tend to be deeper but also less pervious and probably less fertile than those formed on sandstone. • Clay- and silt-rich alluvium will have accumulated along the sides of small creeks draining Brickfield Hill and formed a more extensive 'delta' around the head of Cockle Bay. Two creeks flowing downslope into Cockle Bay crossed George Street near present day Goulburn and Hay Streets (Obed West cited in Marriott 1988: 17). • The pre-1788 dryland vegetation is predicted to have been Eucalyptus-dominated dry sclerophyll forest, with Casuarina glauca swamp forest and mangroves occupying the foreshore around Cockle Bay (see Macphail 2010). Except on the alluvial flats, which are likely to have supported open grasslands due to Indigenous fires, the understorey in dry sclerophyll forests and woodlands on the slopes of Brickfield Hill is predicted to be dominated by shrubs (Benson & Howell 1990). • Observations made by Obed West (ibid: 19) indicate that ti-tree (Leptospermum?) scrub covered vacant land to the south of Campbell Street into the 1820s. Other early accounts, e.g. P. Cunningham (1827 cited in Benson & Howell ibid: 16) emphasise the density of the scrub understorey in forest growing on clayey and ironstone soils in the general area. 3.2 Site History The Colonial history of the Haymarket district is typical of Sydney in general, viz. clearing, subdivision, urban consolidation and environmental degradation.