THE TOWER MILL: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION

Brisbane's Tower Mill is the oldest extant building in Queensland, having been built in 1828 under the direction of Commandant Logan.

It is located in Observatory Park on the southern side of Wickham Terrace and is a major landmark of the City of Brisbane.

(Fig 1). In 1990 the Heritage Section of the Brisbane City Council granted funds to The University of Queensland Archaeological Services Unit (U.Q.A.S.U.) for the Tower Mill Archaeological Project (TMAP90) which sought to investigate for the B.C.C. the possibility that materials of heritage value lay beneath the soil.

The project was directed by Jay Hall, who conducted preliminary non-invasive subsurface probing in January 1990 (see Hall 1991. Hall and Yelf 1993). Excavation
was carried out in April 1990 under the field supervision of Bruno David and the subsequent analysis of recovered material was undertaken by Jon Prangnell as part of his BA Honours research.

This paper reports primarily on the excavation and subsequent artefact analysis of this important historical site. It also Presents a preliminary model to explain the depositional sequence as well as a chronology of the site based upon that sequence and its cultural content (see also Prangnell 1991).

A more detailed analysis of this site, set within the theoretical framework of Australian historical archaeology, is to be published elsewhere.

The Site and its Historical Setting convict backwater to state capital. As a backdrop to the The Tower Mill is one of only two Brisbane buildings TMAP90 research an historical outline is presented remaining from the convict era (the other is the below (refer Figure 2 for graphic historic representation).
Commissariat Store built in 1829). It has the longest For a more detailed account the reader is referred to historical record of any building in Queensland and this Heap (1983). Hogan (1978) and Prangnell (1991).

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THE TOWER MILL: AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATION