Sydney Metro: Barangaroo Boat - June 2020

The secrets of the historic Barangaroo Boat are being uncovered in a world-class archaeological process in Western Sydney.
The almost 200-year-old Barangaroo Boat, found during construction of Sydney Metro, is undergoing the next stage of its conservation - including detailed cleaning, high resolution 3D recording via structured light scanning and chemical treatment in large, purpose-built water tanks.
Hundreds of pieces are being documented and conserved with the aim of fully re-building it.
The boat is believed to have been built in the 1820s and is the oldest currently known example in NSW of an Australian-built, small European-style timber boat that once moved around Sydney. It was uncovered in October 2018 during excavation works for the new Barangaroo metro station.
The boat was found on a small area of beach which formed between the Cuthbert’s shipyard (1850s) and remnants of Langford’s privately built wharf. The beach was used to store old boats to recycle or reuse them.
An 1850s seawall made of stone blocks was also found nearby, and it’s likely the boat was buried in the sand some time before the seawall was built.
Preliminary wood sample analysis has revealed it is made from Sydney Blue Gum, Stringybark and Spotted Gum, which would have been sourced in the Sydney basin. It was built using the clinker technique, where the planks that make up the hull overlap and are held together with small iron fastenings and possibly tree nails.
On a national level, only a handful of shipwreck sites of Australian-built, pre-1850 vessels have been found and archaeologically documented. The Barangaroo Boat is one of the earliest colonial-built vessels found, recorded, fully excavated and recovered in its entirety in Australia.
The boat was salvaged, removed from the site and transported to a specialised Western Sydney facility to be further studied by world-renowned experts using the latest technology. Each timber was photographed in detail where it was found, then raised and recorded by maritime archaeologists and conservators. The timbers were wrapped in geofabric soaked with fresh water, then sealed with black plastic sheeting.
They were then placed in a refrigerated shipping container at 4°C.
Silentworld Foundation, Sydney Metro and the Australian National Maritime Museum have been undertaking the recording, conservation and research of the Barangaroo Boat at the Western Sydney facility, which has been prepared specially for the work.
The ongoing archaeological work is uncovering more information about construction methods in early Australian shipbuilding and the industry overall, the movement of goods in the colony and how waterborne business operated around Sydney Harbour and along the rivers.