The Commonwealth Block, Melbourne: A Historical Archaeology

Description

For much of the 19th and 20th centuries, Melbourne's Little Lonsdale - locally known as 'Little Lon' - was notorious as a foul slum and brothel district, occupied by the itinerant and the criminal. The stereotype of 'slumdom' defined 'Little Lon' in the minds of Melbournians, and became entrenched in Australian literature and popular culture. The Commonwealth Block, Melbourne tells a different story. This ground-breaking book reports on almost three decades of excavations conducted on the Commonwealth Block - the area of central Melbourne bordered by Little Lonsdale, Lonsdale, Exhibition and Spring streets. Since the 1980s, archaeologists and historians have pieced together the rich and complex history of this area, revealing a working-class and immigrant community that was much more than just a slum. The Commonwealth Block, Melbourne delves into the complex social, cultural and economic history of this forgotten community.

Tim Murray is the Charles La Trobe Professor of Archaeology at La Trobe University. Kristal Buckley is a lecturer in cultural heritage at Deakin University. Sarah Hayes is a historical archaeologist in the heritage and indigeneity stream of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. Geoff Hewitt is a consulting archaeologist. Justin McCarthy is an archaeologist and the Managing Director of heritage consulting firm Austral Archaeology Pty Ltd. Richard Mackay is the founder and 'Director of Possibilities' at Mackay Strategic, and an adjunct professor of archaeology at La Trobe University. Barbara Minchinton is an independent researcher and volunteer at the Public Record Office Victoria. Charlotte Smith is a curator emeritus at Museums Victoria. Jeremy Smith is Heritage Victoria's Principal Archaeologist, and has been a member of the Archaeology Advisory Committee of the Victorian Heritage Council since 2002. Bronwyn Woff was the Research Assistant for the La Trobe University Commonwealth Block Project between 2015 and 2017.

' ... the authors provide several different research angles and cover a wide range of topics and themes that revolve around the Little Lon project. The outcome of this book is a detailed synthesis of research addressing a variety of themes that exist within Australian historical archaeology and urban archaeology.' -- Hannah Craig-Ward * Australasian Historical Archaeology * "Where the volume excels is in showing the extraordinary growth and development of Australian historical archaeology since the late 1980s ... As a summary of site history (in both senses), method, and theory, it has considerable merit" -- Alasdair Brooks * Post-Medieval Archaeology * "Overall this is a valuable addition to the greater corpus of material relating to Little Lon, which helps to contextualise and understand the development of the project over time. Anyone with an interest in urban archaeology and subaltern people will benefit from reading this." -- Sean Winter * Australian Archaeology *