UFB provides link to past

New Zealand Heritage Properties Ltd principal archaeologist Sheryl Cawte in the company's lab,...
New Zealand Heritage Properties Ltd principal archaeologist Sheryl Cawte in the company's lab, holds a wooden underground water pipe found in Oamaru. Photo by Gerard O'Brien.
Cobblestones in Caversham. Photo supplied.
Cobblestones in Caversham. Photo supplied.
Chorus workers install broadband cabling. Photo by ODT.
Chorus workers install broadband cabling. Photo by ODT.
Kerbing found under the footpath outside Chick's Hotel in Port Chalmers. Photo supplied.
Kerbing found under the footpath outside Chick's Hotel in Port Chalmers. Photo supplied.

A Dunedin archaeology company is discovering fragments of the avenues and alleyways of the city's past, as ultra-fast broadband (UFB) installation sparks plenty of digging on city streets.

As the telecommunications infrastructure company Chorus rolls out UFB, rules around development on sites with pre-1900 activity means an authority from Heritage New Zealand is required before work can be undertaken.

Dunedin company New Zealand Heritage Properties Ltd principal archaeologist Sheryl Cawte said the work was uncovering kerbing and cobblestones from Dunedin's early days.

The areas uncovered showed a snapshot from a time when horses and carts clattered through city streets, rather than cars.

That included guttering, kerbstones and an entrance to an old cellar in Caversham, once one of New Zealand's most densely populated suburbs.

The kerb and gutter were different from those seen in other areas, using rocks and curved greywacke stones.

That was different from the square-cut bluestone and bricks found elsewhere.

''We've never had evidence of any kind of infrastructure like that, and we hit it.

''In Dunedin central they cut and dressed big stones, and it was very designed.''

In other areas, roads were just packed dirt, but the find showed authorities felt they needed infrastructure in Caversham.

Mrs Cawte said the company was the lead contractor for Chorus' archaeology throughout New Zealand.

It started working with Chorus in Oamaru about two years ago, and had since secured the rest of its work.

The company developed a system called global archaeology authority, using geographic information systems and information from reported heritage sites, heritage research, data from the client and data from councils.

A traffic light system let contractors know where heritage sites would be.

Areas where sites were known were marked on a map in red, possible sites were marked in yellow, and sites where there was nothing were marked green.

Where heritage sites were uncovered beneath asphalt, they were documented and photographed, before they were covered up again.

Chorus would try to dig the trench for its cables under or around the site.

Reports on the finds would go to the New Zealand Archaeological Association, and Heritage New Zealand.

Mrs Cawte said attitudes towards the requirement for archaeology were changing and contractors were now more likely to get excited about finds, rather than finding them a nuisance.

david.loughrey@odt.co.nz

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