Remade ground: Modelling historical elevation change across Melbourne’s Hoddle Grid

Abstract

Urbanisation is a transformative process that can dramatically reshape land surfaces. Archaeologists working in urban environments are often required to relate the outcomes of this process to the archaeological record. This is particularly true for pre-European Aboriginal cultural heritage, where the enduring presence of pre-contact ground surfaces has important implications for cultural heritage management. Accurately predicting which parts of a city have increased or decreased in elevation historically could provide archaeologists with a new means of assessing archaeological potential. In this paper we present a methodology for modelling historical landscape change using nineteenth century topographic maps and GIS. To demonstrate the approach, changes in elevation between 1853 and 1895 were modelled across Melbourne’s central business district (the Hoddle Grid). The results of that modelling were then related to contemporary heritage inventories. When coupled with historical research, this form of landscape modelling could produce valuable insights about city formation, industrial era activity, and the ways city dwellers domesticate space in the Anthropocene.