Stockade Site
Powder Magazine 1940
The site of the Towrang Stockade is located on the north side of the Hume Highway, approximately 10 kilometres North of Goulburn. The site is across the highway from the Derrick VC rest area on the slopes of a clear hill overlooking the Wollondilly River and bounded to the East by Towrang Creek.
Towrang was one of Governor Bourke’s punitive establishments where chain gangs performed hard labour. The next and last step for the recidivist was Norfolk Island. Towrang was one of the relatively few places where flogging probably did occur.
To the casual visitor the site appears to be a number of earthen humps. When the site was decommissioned in 1843, it is evident that the buildings were dismantled and the materials reused at other locations. Unwanted stonework and rubble was left at the site and form the earthen mounds that we see evident today.
In 1987 Mr J H Winston-Gregson of Access Archaeology Pty Ltd was commissioned to conduct an archaeological survey of the site to identify any remains and to delineate the site.
The survey identified sixteen remaining structures that relate to the convict era which fall in two clusters. The cluster on the lower slope above the Wollondilly River is comprised of eleven structures. The one and only remaining structure, the supposed powder magazine is in the bank of the river and is half carved from the rock face and half laid masonry. A lot of the material used in the original structure was the local shale. Unfortunately, the powder magazine façade and entrance has been restored a number of times and is not sympathetic to the original construction. Immediately upslope from the magazine, but not immediately noticeable, is the site of two pole frame stables with river cobble floors. In a line across the slope above the stables can be seen six distinct mounds. One of the middle mounds has been excavated. Each mound is thought to be comprised of a stone hearth and collapsed remains of a hut. Further along the lower slope immediately to the West of the six mounds and overlooking the river flat, are two more mounds. The nearer mound was almost certainly the site of a forge structure whilst the use of the second has not been clarified.
Upslope and first to be encountered when accessing the area from the entry gate off the highway, are the remains of the Stockade itself (demarked by the main information sign). The stockade was a rectangle and is thought to have been comprised of some ten buildings. Structures identified were a guardhouse and a possible bakehouse. The largest structure at Towrang is found here and was an L shaped pise building with four cellars. This structure could have been the Company HQ and commissariat (military food and equipment supply depot). There were a number of very basic wooden huts and boxes (huts on wheels) which accommodated the convicts. These huts would not have had a fireplace nor a stone floor. Due to the type of construction used there was no evidence of these huts found during the survey. Towrang Stockade as it stood when left in 1843 was a compound of buildings with an unrestricted field of fire across a glacis in all directions with any staked stockade fences long since abandoned.
Excavation of Soldiers Hut.
A small excavation was conducted of one of the six mounds near the powder magazine to reveal something of the design and materials used. The building was a rectangle approximately 3700x7920mm external constructed with pise (rammed earth) walls and had a hipped roof of bark or shingles. A large hearth was in the centre of the long North wall. A rubble wall base on the North wall acted both as a footing for the building wall and as a retainer for the hearth and interior earth platform. Except for the retaining wall beside the hearth the pise was poured directly onto the ground without the benefit of a slate footing or dampcourse. Very little building material was recovered. There was no timber (shingles, rafters, door frames ) there was no roofing bark and little window glass. There were very few nails and no screws. There was no charcoal nor any sign of burning except that found within the collapsed chimney and hearth. The conclusion is that, across the site, salvageable materials were sold for re-use. A listing and description of the artifacts found at the site can be read in the attached archaeological report.
The Commandant lived apart from the stockade and the soldier lines with a house and garden at a possible site some distance upstream beside the Wollondilly. The site is on private property.
Towrang had to be largely self supporting, a large establishment needs a lot of food. A cultivation patch or garden was thought to be located on the flat closer to the river and beside a lagoon and a stockyard located at the confluence with Towrang Creek.
The Towrang site should be pictured in its full context. Life centred on the stockade but the convicts and soldiers worked each day on culvert and road construction; quarrying and transporting raw materials; working the cultivation garden and caring for stock; working the forge; cutting and transporting the huge amount of timber needed for cooking as well as attending to everyday domestic chores of the camp providing meals etc.
A plan of the stockade site by Access Archaeology Pty Ltd
(For more details click on the report and zoom.)
A Pick Head discovered in the excavation
Shards of China Plate