Archaeological interpretation and ethnographic analogy: the lime industry in Western Australia

Abstract

The colony of Western Australia differed from most early settlements in Australia in that its earliest establishments, at Albany and Fremantle, had ready access to limestone. Limestone has been used from the colony's inception through to the present day both as a building stone and as a source of lime through the simple expedient of burning it. The biggest users of lime have been the building industry (in mortars, plasters and washes), the mining industry (as part of the gold separation process), agriculture, and processing industries. The earliest recorded use of lime in Western Australia was in the construction of the Roundhouse, a gaol in Fremantle in 1831. The many subsequent masonry buildings utilised lime which was probably locally produced. The exact method used to produce this early lime is not known, but it was burnt in the open, in shallow pits (Pearson 1981), or in small masonry kilns. The earliest evidence for lime kilns is a reference in an 1845 surveyor's field note book to several kilns at Fremantle and in the Swan Estuary (Chauncy 1845). Simple, hand-loaded, timber-fired kilns have been used from then to the present day. A few survivors still operate, for example at Wanneroo, north of Perth. Almost all other limeworks now use oil or gas fired furnaces. This long tradition of lime burning offers an unusual opportunity to study the archaeological remains of the earlier industry in the light of present practice. We can compare ethnographic observations with the archaeological remains, which may help us understand past changes in processes, technology and human behaviour within the industry. The usefulness of this approach is accentuated by the very poor documentary evidence of the W.A lime industry. Lime burning was a simple process which did not attract professional technical description, and casual visitors tended to paint picturesque and emotive word pictures rather than objectively record processes. There is, however, a body of oral tradition about lime burning, drawing on both first-hand and inherited experience among the families who once pursued the trade. This information and interpretation is a third source of evidence about changes in the industry and their causes. The archaeological evidence used here comes from more than thirty kilns I recorded in south-western Western Australia (Figure 1).