MADE IN AUSTRALIA
Our earliest colonial era boat?
The well-preserved remains of a boat were unearthed in November 2018, during Sydney Metro’s excavation of Barangaroo Station, at the historic site of a shipyard. Preliminary timber identification analysis revealed an exclusive use of Australian timber species in the construction of the boat. The type of construction is known as clinker, where the planks are laid first, and slightly overlap each other, and the frames are added later.
The discovery is deemed one of national significance as the boat is believed to be one of the oldest colonial Australian-built craft to be fully excavated, recorded and raised.
The Barangaroo Boat, as it is now known, has the potential to reveal rare information on colonial shipbuilding techniques and the adaptive use of native Australian timber in European construction traditions. Under Sydney Metro planning approval conditions, a rescue excavation was undertaken. See the excavation, hear from the field archaeologists and understand more about the site here.
THE BOAT UNEARTHED
Excavating the Barangaroo Boat
Excavating the Barangaroo Boat
The boat was excavated and painstakingly recorded in-situ. Before being methodically dismantled, positional information of each timber was recorded in the overall structure of the boat. Once each timber had been removed from its resting place, it was individually recorded in more detail. Then the timbers were carefully wrapped to retain moisture, and secured to rigid boards for transportation and storage. This also prevented warping. All timbers were stored in refrigerated containers to slow and prevent biological activity.
As work progressed maritime archaeologists were able to form some preliminary theories about the vessel, drawn from each piece of timber they uncovered. It appears that the builders of the boat were accomplished woodworkers, but idiosyncratic features such as irregular fastening size and materials used, point towards less experienced shipbuilders, or perhaps those with limited sources of materials.
It is exciting to continue exploring the construction, potential use and life of the boat as well as get a rare glimpse into the early life of the colony, as we progress through the conservation phase.
RE-IMMERSING THE BOAT
Recording and conserving the boat hull timers
Recording & Conserving the Timbers
The new phase in the story of the Barangaroo Boat is conservation of all its timbers. In order to undertake this phase, Sydney Metro worked closely with the Silentworld Foundation to develop a detailed project design for the professional documentation and conservation of the boat hull structural elements. The Sydney Metro shipwreck conservation facility was set up to provide a purpose specific platform to undertake this work.
How is it done?
The team must follow a sequence of steps in order to remove the timbers from their cold storage, record them in detail, then prepare them for treatment and finally place the timbers in tanks for conservation.
- Unwrap and clean timber
→ excavated timbers retained sediment on their surface which must be removed as it can harbour bacteria and fungus - Record timber to the highest level possible
→ the team used a structure light scanner to record each cleaned timber to high resolution – the resulting 3D digital models are annotated using CAD software in order to point out specific features - Pretreatment – removing excess iron
→ recorded timbers treated in order to remove excess iron deposited on/in the timbers by the iron nails used in its construction - Treatment – impregnating the timbers with PEG wax
→ polyethylene glycol is a liquid wax – it will replace the water in the cells of waterlogged wood hence providing rigidity when the wood is dried
In this very exciting phase, the Silentworld Foundation and Sydney Metro team are working with York Archaeological Trust and Ubi3D, with collaborative support from the Australian National Maritime Museum. Work on the recording and conservation phase began in October 2019.
FOLLOW THE STORY OF "BROO"
Updates and insights from the news and our team
😃We are thrilled to be part of @sydneyisopen!
🔎Join Renee Malliaros and Heather Berry for a behind-the-scenes, in-person, look at the #BarangarooBoat conservation project on Saturday, 5 November.
😱Tickets are nearly booked out: www.sydneyopen.com.au/program/tour/barangaroo-boat-conservation-project/
Image: © Justin Sanson/Transport for NSW
#Heritage #SydneyIsOpen #FocusTour #BoatLovers #Conservation

📚 On the blog: Recently, Sydney Metro and the Silentworld Foundation invited archaeological conservators to an in-depth, day-long forum exploring the conservation of the #BarangarooBoat.
🔬 As Heather Berry writes, previously we have only been able to provide some select smaller site tours, but this was the first day where the team could share the actual progress and conservation plan for the unique project, with a wide range of Australian heritage professionals — including practical demonstrations of the conservation process, and some hands-on learning.
👉 Read more at the link in the bio.
#Heritage #Conservation #AusHistory

🧽Cleaning all of Broo’s timbers a couple of times over, provided a great opportunity for professionals in archaeology and conservation to get involved with the project once more (archaeology and conservation volunteers came from far and wide during the excavation and also for the initial cleaning phase of the conservation project) - early career archaeologists and conservators included!
⛵Shipwreck conservation has not occurred in Australia for a few decades so, thanks to Sydney Metro’s commitment to this rare artefact, it is great to be building that capacity back into the professional community!
❤️A big thank you to all the volunteers – it was a pleasure to have you on board (pun definitely intended!).
#BarangarooBoat #Conservation #Volunteering #ScrubScrubScrub #Archaeology #Shipwreck

Now that the EDTA has been hanging out in the tank and becoming acquainted with the iron on Broo’s timbers, we need to give everything a good scrub to help the process along. Once that is done, Broo will need to go into a second EDTA bath to really make sure that iron is making its way out of the timbers.
Time to swab the decks!
#BarangarooBoat #conservation

How are your iron levels? Broo`s are quite high - all the timbers have absorbed iron from the now disintegrated iron nails that once held them in their shape. But unlike in humans, the presence of iron in archaeological wood undergoing conservation can cause serious problems and limit the success of the treatment.
So first thing’s first - we are using a chemical in Broo`s bath water, called EDTA, which is a chelating agent, to extract as much iron from the timbers as possible.
#BarangarooBoat #conservation

Time to exterminate biological life forms! While the timbers await chemical treatment they must be kept free of microbes which can contribute to their decay. A broad spectrum biocide is added to help with this. The timbers are sanitised in this way prior to the addition of the PEG wax in which they will be preserved and we will be keeping an eye 🧐 on microbe colonies throughout the conservation process.
Image copyright: Sydney Metro
#BarangarooBoat #brooboat #timberconservation #conservatorlife #wooddecay

Read it
On the blog
In the news
Academic articles
- Van Damme, T., Auer, J., Ditta, M. et al.The 3D annotated scans method: a new approach to ship timber recording. Herit Sci8, 75 (2020). View online at: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-020-00417-9
Watch it
Sydney Metro reserves the rights to all project imagery. All images and footage have been used with permission from Sydney Metro.