Peel Town Archaeological Sites

Child Places

• 16994 Naval Base Holiday Park

Statement of Significance

(A) Clarence Cemetery has historical significance because it was the burial ground for Thomas Peel’s unsuccessful settlement at Clarence in 1830. The fate of those buried there demonstrates how harsh conditions were in the Swan River Colony for European settles in 1830.
The site may have significance as an archaeological site, because nothing remains on the ground surface to indicate where the burials were situated or how many there were.
Historical importance is because of the very early establishment of the burial ground when the area was first surveyed. It is probably the first cemetery or one of the first in the colony.
Social importance is that of all burial grounds for their respective communities
The site has both recreational and tourist importance because of its situation on high ground overlooking the coastal scenery.
The history of the site demonstrates the harsh way of life and the harsh environment in the days of early settlement.
When reading of the families buried there (refer: “a Colony detailed” by Ian Berryman and “Lonely Graves of Western Australia” by Yvonne & Kevin Coate) one begins to understand the development of cultural phases of the settles in the new Swan River Colony
(B) Aesthetic Value The site has little aesthetic value due to the very low relief archaeological remains and moderately dense vegetation cover. Historic Value Thomas Peel’s 1830 Site is a fossilised camp dating to 1830 that shows how Western Australia’s earliest settlers adapted to a new environment. With the possible exception of the yet unsurveyed Garden Island 1829 site, it is the best well preserved early settlement camp in Western Australia. Scientific Value Thomas Peel’s 1830 Site has high scientific value. The camp’s archaeology preserve the behaviour patterns of Western Australia’s first settlers, informing about possible maladaptation and the speed of adaptation to the unknown Western Australia physical and cultural environment. The archaeological assemblage can also show whether settlers were prepared for the rigors of settlement, and what they considered their part would be in the Swan River Colony. Social Value Thomas Peel’s 1830 Site has high social value. When occupied in 1830, the camp contained about 33% of Western Australia’s population. Many of Western Australia’s present population have links with the site and the people who lived and died there. Members of the Parker, Edwards, Spice, Tuckey, Thomas, Leeder, Heard, Devenish and Meares families contribute greatly to Western Australia to this day. Rarity Thomas Peel’s 1830 Site is exceptionally rare at regional, national and international levels. Condition Thomas Peel’s 1830 Site is in excellent condition. Authenticity Thomas Peel’s 1830 Site has a very high degree of authenticity

Physical Description

(A) Old Historic Plan 142 (Thomas Peel’s grant near Clarence by George Smythe 1830) shows the burial ground for Clarence. Mr Ian Elliott (Dept of Land and Administration) has plotted this site onto a more recent map, which shows the site as being off Pettit Road Naval Base. Nothing now remains on the ground surface to indicate where the Clarence Cemetery could have been. As the area mapped covers a limestone outcrop, it is difficult to imagine how the graves were dug or where they might have been situated.
(B) Thomas Peel’s 1830 Site is in the Beeliar Regional Park in the suburbs of Henderson and Naval Base. The 40.5-hectare area of banksia lowland and exotic vegetation contains the structural remains and discarded items of 500 men, women and children belonging to the Peel Association under the control of Thomas Peel. The material dates to 1830. Two, 15 by 15 metre areas have been examined archaeologically at the time of writing. Designated Site 1 and Site 2, the two areas contain a large collection of material remains. Accessioning of material is yet to begin, but an abridged list of the two sites’ material remains is presented below.
Site 1. Site 1’s excavations unearthed a 2 by 4 metre tent pad of local limestone cobbles mortared with lime (Figure 1). A limestone and yellow brick hearth is attached to the pad’s south west corner (Figure 2). The hearth’s brick base is in two levels separated by iron sheeting. Flat limestone at each end of the hearth’s firebox suggests that bread baking also occurred in the feature.
The remains of a tent pole and three cast iron tent pegs exist on the pad’s margins, while window glass was unearthed along the pad’s eastern margin. Bottle glass, the remains of an iron ash rake and a complete saltglazed stoneware blacking bottle were found on the pad and in the hearth.
Extensive excavations to the pad’s north found a large collection of material. Most of this material was very small, suggestive of artefact deposition caused by sweeping material off the pad.
Site 2. Site 2 comprised three areas in a 10 by 15 metre area. Area 1 consisted of partial dry stone limestone wall foundations measuring 2 by 4.5 metres (Figure 3). Excavations exposing the foundations also unearthed a layer of limestone mason’s chips, fragments of glass and ceramics and an 1827-penny. Area 2 of Site 2 has been interpreted as a structure for sleeping and living (Figure 4). A limestone and yellow brick hearth forms most of a probable timber and canvas structure’s south wall, with copper-alloy metal and timber battens used as anchors for the no longer preserved canvas. The structure’s length is 5.5 metres, but width was indeterminable.

The archaeological assemblage collected from near Site 1’s limestone pad comprises beads; buttons; brass clothing hooks and eyes; two brass weights stamped with King George III’s mark; window glass – some distorted by melting; copper rod; percussion caps; gun flints; clay smoking pipe fragments and lead shot of various diameters. The lead shot, gunflints and percussion caps were unearthed within a 1 by 1 metre area. A trench about 10 metres long and 10 metres behind the pad contained items discarded by the tent’s occupants. About 1000 artefacts were recovered, including broken black glass bottle fragments; ceramic fragments of underglaze transferware (all blue in colour); creamware and yellowware bowls; a yellowware jug, many nails; an ivory domino piece; a silver chain; a brass 1820 shilling pierced with an iron nail; fragments of pig bone; barrel hoops; clay smoking pipe fragments, and brass pins. An area 32 metres square was excavated around Site 2’s structure. The following is an incomplete list of some artefacts found: five coins (two 1827 pennies, an 1827 shilling, an 1805 Irish penny and a very worn 178? penny); 32 brass thimbles, most for children’s use; c.300 brass pins; many brass clothing hooks and eyes; many brass buttons; a pair of tailor’s scissors; two iron keys; many English flint fragments; pieces of sulphur; tin container fragments; shot; seven gunflints; many clay smoking pipe fragments and glass and ceramic fragments. The fragments of English flint and sulphur are most likely associated with fire making, while the tin container fragments are probably the remains of tinderboxes. The coins were unearthed from a 1.5 by 1 metre area. Area 3 of Site 2 was the site’s cooking area. It comprises a limestone and yellow brick oven (Figure 5) measuring 3 by 1.5 metres. The excavation of heavy deposits of ash and charcoal near the oven’s throat found many nails, fragments of copper metal and pieces of glass and ceramic (some heat affected). Two sites have been excavated to completion at the time of writing. However, above surface features like low mounds of limestone and light artefact scatters at Sites 1 and 2 are also present at five other areas, strongly suggesting that well-preserved structural remains from 1830 exist nearby. In addition, artefacts with 1820 stylistic characteristics are present in small quantities over the 40-hectare area (see Site Plan 11).

History

Assessment A: 1990 (Cemetery Site)
Assessment B: 2008 (Peel's 1830 site)
(A) The burial ground off Pettit Road is a relic of Thomas Peel’s failed settlement at Clarence. The scheme suffered from bad luck and bad management. It is believed that about thirty people are buried there, all of whom died within six months of the establishment of the Clarence settlement on 1 January 1830. Most fell victim to scurvy or dysentery. The scheme was unlucky from the start, poorly provisioned and poorly led. The Clarence townsite was abandoned by 1831. Thomas peel went on to Mandurah with some of his remaining settlers and enjoyed better success.

(B) Between late 1829 and early 1830, three ships containing about 500 men, women and children arrived off
Western Australia’s south west coast. As part of the Peel Association lead by Thomas Peel, the settlers found
land promised them in the newly established Swan River Colony already allocated to other settlers. While Peel
and colony officials made arrangements regarding the allocation of new land, Peel’s group camped in sand
hills fronting Cockburn Sound.
There they struggled. Some were confined by indentured servant regulations inhibiting unregulated
movement, while others tried making the most of what was available. All had nowhere to go. Descriptions of
the camp depict individuals and family groups camped in tents, horse’s boxes and rough timber structures.
Poor water, food shortages and summer heat killed 37 people already physically stressed after a four-month
voyage from England. Eventually, after new land found for settlers proved poor, the group disbanded, joining
other Swan River Colony settlers at Perth, Fremantle and Guildford and the Swan Valley’s agricultural
allotments. By 1832, only five people remained at the camp.
The camp’s dead were buried in a rectangular area marked on an 1830 map.

In 1828, Thomas Peel, cousin of the Home Secretary and later British Prime Minister Robert Peel, entered into a partnership with prominent merchant Solomon Levey to establish a large scale settlement in the proposed Swan River Colony. They planned investing a large sum in the transportation of goods, equipment, livestock and labour to the Swan River Colony in return for grants of land in proportion of one acre for every one shilling sixpence expended. A 250,000-acre grant between the Swan and Canning Rivers was asked for and approved by the Colonial Office. However, to qualify for the grant, many immigrants and considerable capital assets had to arrive in the Swan River Colony by 1 November 1829. Due to delays, the first of Peel’s three ships, the Gilmore with 166 passengers, arrived six weeks late on 15 December 1829. The colony’s Lieutenant governor, James Stirling had, however, by this time granted all of Peel’s 250,000 acres to other settlers. The limited amount of fertile land on the Swan Coastal Plain, and the steady arrival of settlers since June 1829 who wanted land, forced Stirling to enforce the forfeiting clause. Peel’s late arrival meant he and his group had no privileges in the Swan River Colony, but Stirling made concessions by allowing him to select 250,000 acres from Cockburn Sound south to an inlet (Peel Inlet) and along the banks of the rivers flowing into it (the Serpentine and Murray Rivers). With nowhere to go until the making of new land allocation arrangements, the Gilmore’s passengers camped in sand hills near Mt Brown. On 12 February 1830, the Association’s second ship, the Hooghly with 176 passengers of mostly tradesmen and their families, arrived. Shortly after (14 May 1830), the Rockingham with 152 passengers arrived and then ran aground. Descriptions of the Peel town camp conditions are few but poignant. Captain George Bayly, the Hooghly’s second officer, described soon after arriving in February 1830 that most of the Gilmore’s settlers ‘get drunk everyday and lie about in the sun, so that several have been laid up with the fever’. There were many complaints by settlers to Bayly about Peel and his Association, the lack of fresh water, but the availability of too much alcohol. Bayly also mentioned that most of the Hooghly’s recently alighted passengers had congregated in their own area of Peel town that he and other settlers called Hooghly town. Bayly also describes sections of the camp: The cottages were built in a line on each side of a broad road which had been marked out by the surveyor and their fires for cooking were made in the middle of the road. Two or three carpenters and a Ship sailmarker had built themselves comfortable residences, but none of them seemed to think they were going to stay long in the place, as they found there was not much chance of employment...[t]hen I walked up to Hooghly town…a great many women and children were ill… Bayly describes an assortment of structures at Peel town, ranging from horse and cow crates converted for human use (Thomas Peel himself occupied one), houses of unspecified material covered with tarpaulins or thatched with rushes and prefabricated timber structures brought from Britain. The Dunnage family, who arrived on the Gilmore, had a ‘very pretty cottage’, most likely the ‘house in frame’ worth £248 13 shillings fourpence recorded on Dunnage’s list of imported goods. However, most settlers lived in tents and marquees ‘made by Mr Edgington of Tooley Street [London]’. Bayly produced the only visual depiction of Peel town, showing variously sized dwellings laid out with little organization on the windward side of the limestone ridge and extending to the beach and limestone cliffs. It is unclear who did the survey Bayly mentions. Roe, in the Survey Office’s monthly report, records surveying ‘Clarence’ from 25 to 31 January, but George Smythe and Henry Sutherland all produced maps dated to that year containing information about the camp’s location and site of some of its structures. Sutherland’s concentration on the coastline meant the noting of camp items only near the beach and rocky coast (like Peel’s house and store), but Smythe’s survey proceeded further in land. His map clearly shows a wide track passing between two small hills with small dwellings flanking the track and Peel’s house at the water’s edge. He records nine dwellings of unknown building material and no tents, while the graveyard and the well near Watson’s dwelling appear a later addition. By June 1830, Peel Association members were strung along the coast at Peel town, Mangles Bay (some of the people from the Rockingham that had moved from Peel’s Scheme) and near the Murray River where a small group of men assessed land. Due to continued misfortune and accident, Thomas Peel was recuperating on HMS Sulphur moored in Gage Roads, leaving Peel town’s settlers without command or advice. People’s health by this time had deteriorated further from what Bayly described. General illnesses like ophthalmia and stomach ailments were common in the Swan River Colony at this time, but the concentration of people at the camp result in greater severity. In Peel’s absence, complaints and concerns about the camp were sent to Stirling, and the resulting investigation saw the Sulphur’s surgeon, Alexander Collie, visit the site. Collie’s report examined settlers’ health, quantity and quality of food and water and the camp’s living conditions. He found about 400 people, many suffering scurvy and dysentery. He also recorded the deaths of 29 settlers, most due to dysentery and scurvy (14 and five respectively), but fatalities also due to pneumonia, childbirth complications (that claimed mother and child) and a child having died of convulsions after drinking a large quantity of alcohol. Two stillbirths are included in the 29, but not George McKenzie’s fatal spearing by Aboriginal people. Food issued from the camp’s store was sufficient but of varying quality and unavailable for the very sick, while good water had been difficult to procure until the coming of heavy rain. Collie visited the settlers’ huts, particularly those in which death had occurred, finding them ‘with a few exceptions, tolerably water proof and well ventilated, although small’. A small hospital covered with canvas existed. Collie considered that poor food and water caused much of the sickness, but ‘irregular habits’ of some of the camp’s men contributed to their deaths. He recommended growing vegetables immediately to counter scurvy. Collie found the health of the small groups at Mangles Bay and Murray River good, with the later group growing antiscorbutic plants. By August 1830, 37 of Peel town’s members were dead. Collie’s report showed Stirling that Peel was not supplying the camp’s members adequate supplies as required by indentured contracts. Despite complaints from Peel, Stirling in August 1830 released 12 families from their indentureships, and shortly after more received permission to leave. Many moved to Fremantle, Perth, Guildford and the Swan Valley, while others remained with Peel when he moved to Peel Inlet (Mandurah). By 1832, only five people remained at Peel town.

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This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.