ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following reference: Clarkson, Marianne (2015) The road to Townsville's early success: the engendered cultural landscape of Hervey Range and the community 'at its foot'. PhD thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/47734/ The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owner of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please contact [email protected] and quote http://researchonline.jcu.edu.au/47734/ The Road to Townsville’s Early Success: The engendered cultural landscape of Hervey Range and the community ‘at its foot’ Marianne Clarkson (BA Hons, MB ChB, FRACGP) A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at James Cook University College of Arts, Society and Education August 2015 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost I would like to thank my supervisors Nigel and Shelley for their interest in the initial ideas for the thesis and for their support through the long five years of its completion. Nigel’s willingness to conduct the honour’s student’s field school at the site each year made this entire project feasible and without his help we would not have discovered as much as we have. I also thank them for all their feedback on the drafts for the chapters and for their advice on how to structure the thesis as a whole. I would also like to thank Townsville City Council, who own the land on which this research was conducted, for their permission to carry out the work and for the help from Ted Bundi, the local Heritage Officer. Thanks also go to Kent Wolmsley and his unexpected and very welcome offer of help to clear the excavation sites in 2012 and 2015. The assistance of several council workers with large brush cutters saved us many hours of backbreaking work and allowed us to spend more time actually excavating, rather than simply clearing. The survey and excavation work would not have been possible without the enthusiastic help of both archaeology students and PhD candidates from James Cook University, with some people turning up nearly every year (John Edgar, Puangtip Kerdsap and David Nelson). Texas Nagel and Sam Aird also deserve a special mention for the day they spent cleaning some of the vast quantity of glass that was removed from the rubbish dump. The journey each day to and from the site provided some hairy and memorable moments, but the singing of Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’ by eight students in the back of the vehicle in 2014 will remain a highlight. Wayne Morris, Technical Manager at James Cook University, also provided an alternate view of the sites with his radio controlled drone. His initial attempts at flying his new ‘toy’ provided some interesting moments. Thanks also go to my friends Catherine and Marty Doris who willingly looked after me during the excavations each year - the glass of wine (or two) on arriving back at their house after a long, hot day followed by a home cooked meal was heaven. Finally, a big thankyou to my very patient and supportive husband who encouraged me to keep going, always believing that one day I would finish. Thanks for the coffees, toasted sandwiches and reminders to get up and move so as to avoid a deep vein thrombosis or pressure sore through prolonged sitting at my desk! ii STATEMENT OF CONTRIBUTION BY OTHERS Supervision Dr Nigel Chang and Dr Shelley Greer Stipend Support Minimum Resource Funds - from the College of Arts, Society and Education Assistance with Excavation and Survey Work James Cook University archaeology honour students Second and third year archaeology students from James Cook University Archaeology PhD candidates Townsville City Council Statement of Contributions to Jointly Authored Works Contained in the Thesis No jointly authored works Statement of Contributions by Others to the Thesis as a Whole No contribution by others Published Works by the Author Incorporated into the Thesis None Additional Works by the Author Relevant to the Thesis but not Forming Part of it Clarkson, M. (2011). Forging ahead at Hervey's Range in the hinterland of Townsville, North Queensland. Australasian Historical Archaeology, 29, 45-51. Clarkson, M. (2013). The Forgotten Community 'at the foot of the range', Hervey Range, Townsville. Paper presented at the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology, Parramatta. Clarkson, M. (2014). Adapting the Methodology to Overcome some Tropical Complications. Paper presented at the Combined Australian Archaeological Association and Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology Conference, Cairns. Every reasonable effort has been made to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of copyright material. I would be pleased to hear from any copyright owner who has been omitted or incorrectly acknowledged. iii ABSTRACT This thesis focuses on a small, rural hamlet that was established in 1866 ‘at the foot’ of Hervey Range in Far North Queensland. The hamlet was centred on the Range Hotel, but was also known to have had a small blacksmith shop and a cemetery. The hotel was one of five built alongside Hervey Range Road, which linked the newly gazetted port of Townsville to the inland supply town of Dalrymple and the gold, silver and tin mines of the hinterland. The research undertaken to investigate this settlement was constructed around four main questions: can archaeological evidence contribute to our understanding of the cultural landscape of the hamlet; the social role of the Range Hotel within the community; how women experienced and actively contributed to early settler life; and whether social respectability was important to the residents of a hamlet that was centred on the provision of alcohol. Archival and genealogy research revealed three new families who had resided in the hamlet, identified some of the social interactions and events, or instances of community (Yaeger & Canuto, 2000), that occurred during each of the hamlet’s 18 years of occupation and provided evidence for an additional five, previously unknown, internments in the small cemetery. Archaeological surveys and excavations located the remains of the blacksmith shop that was built by John McNeill, a related rubbish dump, a stone floor that is likely part of the Range Hotel’s stables and the possible site of the McNeill family home. These discoveries were used to examine the cultural landscape of the hamlet and appear to show that the settlement was probably divided into three separate, but related areas: a camping ground for the carriers and road workers, a business/residential area that included the hotel, stables, blacksmith shop and houses, and small cemetery. These areas were linked to each other and the wider landscape by Hervey Range Road. The recovered artefacts were used to assess the resident’s social aspirations, using Quirk’s (2007) six archaeological indictors for middle-class ‘gentility’ and working- class ‘respectability’. Alcohol was often viewed as the ‘working man’s scourge’ and one premise of respectability was the avoidance of this vice. The prominence of alcohol related bottles found across the excavated sites should perhaps have implied that the residents did not desire respectability and yet the recovered evidence did not support this. People in the hamlet appeared to have had comfortable, if simple homes, desired iv non-essential fashion accessories and used varied decorative ceramics to entertain both family and friends. These findings, therefore, suggest that respectability was achieved, even though alcohol was probably drunk by both the male and female residents. This layered theoretical approach has produced a fine-grained narrative that highlights the experiences and active roles that individual males and females played within their families and in the wider community. The results add to the understanding of how early Far North Queensland was successfully settled, with the residents’ daily lives likely mirroring those of many of the other early settlers. This work also demonstrates how the community was not a ‘bounded’ entity, but was in fact linked across the wider landscape through the fluid movement of people and the formation of fictive-kin networks (Prangnell and Mate 2011). The discussion on gentility challenges the idea that alcohol was the antithesis of respectability, instead concluding that the type of community, the varieties of alcohol bottles found and even the identification of triggers that may have led someone to start drinking all need to be taken into account when drawing conclusions from the archaeological finds at a particular site. This thesis provides an important link to research that has already been undertaken in Townsville and on the pastoral stations and gold mines of the hinterland and also suggests further avenues of research. It also demonstrates how a layered theoretical approach can successfully investigate small communities and be used to highlight how ordinary people often led extraordinary lives. Discovering and telling their stories can help to enhance the past and reconnect it to the present. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................ ii Statement of Contribution by Others ........................................................................................................... iii Abstract ........................................................................................................................................................