Search for buried history

It’s no secret Albany is rich in history but what people may not be aware of, is the remains of history buried underneath the town.

University of Notre Dame, Fremantle senior lecturer in archaeology Shane Burke is hoping to discover evidence of structural remains from 1829.

He and his team are in Albany for two days conducting a ground penetrating radar survey of the site of the first British settlement in Albany on Parade Street.

Dr Burke said although much of the original area had been built over, the site of the commandant’s quarters, built May or June 1829 and barracks erected between January and July 1827, existed in the park.

“Determining if physical evidence of the two structures still exists beneath the ground’s surface is the research question, and an affirmative to their presence is important for Albany’s and WA’s bicentenary commemoration,” he said.

“We are looking for any evidence of the first couple of structures built or signs of any physical evidence; both buildings had fire places which usually preserve really well after 200 years and that’s what we are hoping to find.”

Dr Burke said he was confident he and his team would discover something underneath the park.

“The bicentenary of Albany is coming up in a few years and this is the earliest site, (we could) give them information about what they might want to do for the milestone, that’s our aim,” he said.

“We will be setting out various points around the park and, using the ground penetrating radar equipment, we make lines which gives us images of anomalies so when we stitch it all together we should be able to see, hopefully — where the anomalies are underneath the ground, hopefully building structures.”