Early Nineteenth-Century Pub Uncovered in Australia

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA—Traces of one of Australia’s first pubs have been uncovered in Parramatta, now a suburb west of Sydney, by a team of researchers led by archaeologist Ted Higginbotham. According to an ABC News report, the pub, known as the Wheatsheaf Hotel, was built in 1801. The excavation team also found the remains of a wheelwright’s workshop, where carts and wagons were made and fixed, which had been added to an early nineteenth-century convict hut. The hut was demolished for a brick cottage in the 1820s, and the brick cottage was taken down in the 1950s. A well, a baker’s oven, dinner plates, toys, and bottles were also recovered. “The baker’s oven, the wheelwright’s workshop, the later brick cottage could all be matched with the known historical occupants of the site,” Higginbotham explained. The archaeological site has been preserved within a new apartment complex. For more on the archaeology of Australia's colonial period, go to “Final Resting Place of an Outlaw.”