Protecting heritage

Minimising impact

To minimise impact on heritage landmarks and items across the Greater Parramatta region, the Parramatta Light Rail project:

• was designed to use existing road and rail corridors
• put in place measures to ensure that any found items were handled with care
• repurposed and paid respect to historical finds.

Transport worked with NSW Government departments and agencies, including:

• Heritage NSW and NSW Health
• City of Parramatta Council
• local community organisations, including the Local Aboriginal Land Council and registered Aboriginal parties.

This helped ensure the preservation and maintenance of important heritage.  Special care was taken by the projects team to avoid impacts on items of significance.  

Greater Parramatta’s rich history

Archaeological investigations and heritage salvage works provided us with a unique opportunity to:

• learn more about the area’s history, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
• preserve places and items of value.

The process

Archaeological salvage work assessed and recorded any remains of historic sites, as well as potential Aboriginal sites, before construction began. Archaeological investigations were:

• conducted by excavating localised areas, or ‘sondages’
• excavated in linear trenches, or ‘test pits’ to determine the nature and extent of found archaeological material
• conducted layer by layer to assess the surrounding material until the bottom layer is identified.

Foundations or evidence of buildings were recorded and assessed by heritage specialists.

Artefacts or heritage items identified during investigation works were labelled and documented in an excavation report by archaeologists. This ensured that any cultural materials unearthed were recorded and reported.

The project team sought to protect, and conserve found items by:

• incorporating materials into public art or heritage displays around the light rail route
• sharing findings from our research.

Significant finds

When an archaeological find was unearthed, construction was halted until a decision was made about how to proceed.

Mitigation measures might have included:

• a minor amendment to the design plans
• an alternate method of construction.

Where options were exhausted, a detailed salvage excavation took place involving:

• a controlled and systematic investigation
• recording and removal of archaeological deposits.

Early colonial or state-significant building materials found during salvage excavations were stored for potential reuse and interpretation.

Repurposing historical finds

In the course of building the new light rail network, historic finds were considered for heritage interpretation.

This means reusing or preserving the item for a specific purpose to evoke and pay tribute to its history.  

For example, old sandstone was reused and integrated into landscape elements.  

Approximately 250 blocks of heritage sandstone were repurposed to recreate road kerbing along O’Connell Street in North Parramatta, as part of the Parramatta Light Rail program of works.