It’s been a big week at Willow Court with the Archaeology team on their field trip from Flinders University. Many of the students have been doing 14 hour days with field work and their study load. It was a pleasant and relaxed break on Friday night to enjoy a BBQ with the Team and the Friends of Willow Court. There was a lot of talk about the site and it’s history.
The next day the team were back into the work with a survey team, a geophysics team and more cataloguing of items including the clothing found in the privately owned Ladies Cottage.
Logging each pass in the grid as a file
The geophysics team used three types of ground penetrating radar in the quest for hidden foundations and artifacts. Early reports have found, what is believed to be the foundations of the Male Refractory building, which is an “L” shape” and crosses from Carlton yard to the rear of the Carlton side yard. The equipment is so sensitive that the metal contained in the Carlton Ward exercise yard walls was showing up on the equipments data up to five metre away from the wall.
Students setting up the grid
When I visited, the team were setting out grids behind the Barracks and beside the Carlton Ward and old Lachlan Ward, which is now converted to residential units. Once the grid was set out the radar was dragged over the surface and each pass was logged as a separate file which will later form an overall bigger picture.
Calibrating the equipment
The internal walls were being measured in the Barracks and the floorboards were of some interest and were being analysed and the data was being recording. The survey team were just finishing the Willow Court side and started to survey the grounds of Frascati House.
The Friends of Willow Court are hoping that Associate Professor will be able to return to present some of the findings in a public information / lecture session during heritage month activities this year (yet to be confirmed and approved by DVC).
Above: A small pair of shoes which had been catalogued.
Below: Students and the teacher setting out areas to be surveyed in front of Frascati House.
Above: Walking the grid starts.
Below: Checking the instrumentation.
