There is buried treasure under the streets of Maitland - and a team of archaeologists are busily unearthing it.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Earlier this month, archaeologists investigating Maitland City Council's future administration building on High Street, unearthed a number of historical items.
The buried items include wells, cellars, rat bones, glass bottles and significant sandstone from the historic Royal Arch Inn.
Maitland City Council's Senior Project Architect Aaron Cook said a team of archaeologists began a four-week investigation on Monday, November 30 in preparation for the council's new administration building.
"We started looking for a horse drawn flour mill ... It was the first item we looked for," he said.
"We trenched the site fairly extensively to look for it initially but we weren't able to find it.
"We moved onto the site of the Royal Arch Inn, where the stone cellar is, which we knew was there.
"It is a pretty impressive looking structure.
"That's the main thing we've been working on in the last few weeks."
The construction of the multi-million dollar administration building will also include a range of works outside of the new building itself including upgrades to, and integration with, Town Hall, the integration of the old Town Hall Café into the development, road widening and footpath improvements in the immediate precinct and utility/service upgrades.
Mr Cook said the archaeologists will now submit a report to the state's Heritage Office about their findings.
"We have to let the archaeologists finish their assessment and then they will write a statement of significance which will be reported back to the NSW Heritage Office," he said.
"It sits in a landscape area, not under the actual building."
The new administration building is expected to be complete by the end of 2021.
Do you know you can subscribe to get full access to all Maitland Mercury stories? Subscribing supports us in our local news coverage. To subscribe, click here.
