Historic dump in Geraldton’s cathedral grounds opened to the public for foraging

27 Nov 2014

By The Record

Fr Robert Cross at the historic dump site next to St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Geraldton. PHOTO: ABC

By Sarah Taillier

A historic dump in Geraldton’s cathedral grounds has been opened to the public to forage for archaeological treasures from the late 19th century.

The old dump site, in Western Australia’s mid-west, lies on the otherwise neatly landscaped St Francis Xavier Cathedral grounds, where development is hoped to soon be under way for a new museum and plaza.

In the meantime, the public have been allowed to take part in what is being called ‘the big dig’, where they can scavenge through opened earth for artefacts from the rubbish tip, which dates back to the late 19th century.

Director of Heritage for the Diocese of Geraldton and avid archaeologist, Father Robert Cross, is hopeful any archaeological artefacts found will provide a window into the past.

“While documents and catalogues and all can tell us what was around, what we can do, I suppose, through the material left in the ground, is come to understand the economy of Geraldton, the social status of people,” he said.

“We all eventually throw things away… we can sort of pick up through analysis a better understanding to see whether there’s any representation in the rubbish of the cultural make-up of the town at that time and identify the different merchants that were in town.”

Fr Cross said a number of artefacts had already been uncovered.

“We’re finding a lot of old crockery, which would be like 19th-century crockery, bits of iron and other metals, beads, perhaps they were from a hat pin… so it’s really anything and everything we’re interested in,” he said.

He said the coastal port city was once the biggest exporter of soft drinks in Western Australia.

Fr Cross said they had found old glass bottles from companies that vanished long ago.

“These companies have now disappeared, but their marks are there in the ground in their material heritage that they’ve left behind,” he said.

He said a lot of the dump had already been rummaged through.

“Unfortunately, bottle diggers have sort of got into the area and taken the best of what is there, but there could be pockets of what they haven’t dug,” Fr Cross said.

“With a bit of luck we might find some of the bottles collectors have left behind.”

– Courtesy ABC