Phillip Street Smart Streetscape

Heritage and archaeological services rpovided by GML facilitated significant upgrades to Phillip Street’s walkable amenities, supporting the street’s position as one of Parramatta’s new major thoroughfares.

City of Parramatta engaged GML to prepare an Aboriginal cultural heritage assessment report (ACHAR), a built heritage and historical archaeology assessment report, and to undertake test and salvage excavations and post-excavation reporting and analysis.

GML’s ACHAR identified the location-specific Aboriginal heritage values along Phillip Street, contextualising these within the 35,000 years of Aboriginal connection to Parramatta. We implemented a joint program of historical and Aboriginal archaeological testing aligned to the project’s proposed impacts. The approach required a non-standard Aboriginal Heritage Impact Permit, allowing for concurrent archaeological test and salvage excavation. The ACHAR was supported by the local Aboriginal community. Heritage NSW also supported our approach on the basis of our cultural landscape understanding and practical methodology, demonstrating our ability to develop complex, customised assessments and to have these approved by Heritage NSW.

The works identified significant Aboriginal archaeological deposits, which dated back 10,000 years, as well as features associated with Parramatta’s early nineteenth-century historical development, further expanding our understanding of the city’s past. On the basis of these findings, we provided heritage advice to City of Parramatta to assist with redesigns to help conserve the significant archaeology identified.