ARCHAEOLOGIST Shane Burke (right) says a chance to look into the lives of Fremantle colonists will go begging if he can’t get a team onto a Cliff Street site before it’s built over.

The Mediterranean Shipping Company has lodged plans for the carpark next to the Elders building and wants new offices built for staff in time for the arrival of a cruise ship next year.

But Dr Burke, a lecturer at Notre Dame directly across the road, says it’s likely that less than a metre under the asphalt are artifacts dating from the first months of European arrival.

“Behind the Fremantle Hotel eight years ago we did a dig and that’s why we know the cap rock is there,” Dr Burke says. Digging into the rock was prohibitively expensive back in the 1830s so everything would have simply gone on top.

He says his colleague Deborah Gare recently unearthed the first depictions of Fremantle from Mary Anne Friend’s diaries, which show the encampment in 1830 around the site of the carpark.

“You would have good survival [of artifacts] Dr Burke says, confidently.

“Local heritage expert John Dowson says the council muffed the opportunity to enforce an archaeological dig.”

He’s conducted digs where the old police station and Pier Hotel stood, uncovering treasure troves of bits and pieces. He contacted the council months ago but hasn’t heard back.

Architect Rod Mollett, who’s advising MSC on the project, says his client can’t afford to delay the project and he’s hoping to have builders move in very soon.

“I’m sympathetic, but there’s the potential for it to be a disaster,” he told the Herald.

An email a week ago from council heritage architect Alan Kelsall was the first the company knew of anyone’s interest in the site’s archaeology, he says.

Notre Dame has been meeting with the company for more than 18 months to discuss the project’s impact on the uni, and no-one had raised it with him. Mr Mollett says a geotech report didn’t spot anything but he’d provide it to Dr Burke and try to make the construction crew sympathetic to the cause—as long as it didn’t delay anything.

Local heritage expert John Dowson says the council muffed the opportunity to enforce an archaeological dig.

“[Fremantle] council is one of the few in Australia to have a special archaeology policy, given the heritage nature of the town,” the former deputy mayor told the Herald. “But, time and time again, council has failed to use the policy on significant sites.”

by STEVE GRANT