Parramatta Park is currently under investigation — for artefacts pre and post white settlement. Taylor Duff reports.
Archaeologists have been on site at Parramatta Park for almost three weeks now, and have found roughly 400 artefacts.
"As part of the approval process for capital works projects undertaken by the Parramatta Park Trust, areas requiring excavations must have heritage and archaeological investigations undertaken to locate, document, and where necessary, protect artefacts," Suellen Fitzgerald, the executive director of the Western Sydney Parklands Trust, explained.
She said the Trust plans to build more footpaths, playgrounds and picnic equipment within the park.
It is working closely with the Aboriginal community to ensure the safe and respectful discovery and removal of artefacts before this work begins.
The indigenous artefacts are of such importance that the Trust and Comber Consultants have agreed that for every archaeologist there would be an Aboriginal site officer.
"Something we need to be mindful of and careful about [is] that we are respectful and aware of the archaeology both Indigenous and European," Ms Fitzgerald said.
Comber Consultants director and lead archaeologist on the site, Jillian Comber, said: "Trenches are put at 20 metre intervals to test and see if there are any Aboriginal artefacts. If there are, then we expand until no more artefacts can be found in that area."
Objects found have been used to determine how large a clan may have been and how long they occupied the area. Discoveries have also helped determine the tools they used and what animals and plants they ate.
The investigation will continue for another week.
