Author: Jarrad Kowlessar
Kowlessar, Jarrad, 2017 Mount Dutton Bay: A 3D Coastal Landscape Analysis, Flinders University, School of Humanities and Creative Arts
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Mount Dutton Bay, located on the southern Eyre Peninsula, is a spatial location that performed a vital role in South Australian colonial settlement strategies. This sheep station and port provided fresh water, marine and terrestrial resources and so was a vibrant coastal hub at the centre of a rural colonial trade network. Promulgating colonialist, commercial and industrial endeavours, this particular site also became the outlet for local social networks. Pastoralists and mariners of the 1870’s capitalised on the sheltered waters and central location of this bay, and it became the site of a jetty responsible for the supply of a large region as well as the primary export point for that region. A woolshed was constructed in close association to this jetty connecting the maritime trade with the pastoral enterprises of the region.
Archaeology of this site has been confined to isolated maritime, and a single terrestrial study of built material culture. Previous work includes the analysis of an associated shipwreck and a study of the jetty's structural design as well as some site recordings made of the terrestrial features. While these previous works are useful as processual epistemologies, they have failed to engage with the broader spectrum of past meanings and ideas that motivated the development of this site.
Through the application of 3D Landscape Analysis, this research ventures outside the confines of separated schools of thought to consider multiple aspects of the site holistically. Concurrently, remaining archaeological material culture is recorded through the virtual paradigm of photogrammetry techniques, making it accessible for future studies.
The research incorporates this new technology with the more traditional archaeological methods of pedestrian survey, total station, and aerial landscape photography. This research goes some way to shed light on the role of coastal sites in general, and more particularly the role of Mount Dutton Bay in local colonial settlement strategies, revealing overlapping landscapes of class, workspace and fear made visible through this study. It also demonstrates the strengths of 3D landscape analysis in the investigation and positioning of coastal sites within the purveys of historical archaeology.
Keywords: Three Dimensional (3D), Landscape Archaeology, Photogrammetry, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Coastal Archaeology
Subject: Humanities thesis, Archaeology thesis
Thesis type: Masters
Completed: 2017
School: School of Humanities and Creative Arts
Supervisor: Jonathan Benjamin