This book is the result of two collaborative projects between the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales and Professor Tim Murray of the Archaeology Program at La Trobe University in Melbourne, that were supported by two Australian Research Council grants. We gratefully acknowledge the help of various people and institutions during the life of this project. In the first place we thank senior executives of the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, including Peter Watts, Helen Temple, Sue Hunt and Kate Clark, who recognised the importance of the Hyde Park Barracks archaeological collection and have offered unstinting support over the years. Caroline Lorentz, Mark Viner and Dayn Cooper provided invaluable administrative support. Gary Crockett, curator of the Hyde Park Barracks Museum, has been untiring in his management of the artefact database, preparing boxes of artefacts for despatch to La Trobe University, and patiently answering endless questions about the collection.
Our work has built on the previous efforts of many archaeologists, historians and other specialists, including the original excavators and cataloguers at the Hyde Park Barracks led by Patricia Burritt, Wendy Thorp and Dana Mider during multiple phases of work. We also acknowledge the more recent work that has contributed substantially to the preparation of this volume, including substantive research by Bridget Berry and Joy Hughes; Laila Ellmoos (Project Historian, Exploring the Archaeology of the Modern City project who prepared a history of the Barracks building which was adapted for this book); and Sophie Pullar, who catalogued many thousands of artefacts from the Barracks collection in 2003–2004.
Graham Connah kindly donated copies of early archaeological reports on the Hyde Park Barracks, and Annika Korsgaard provided scans of Barracksrelated material. Daniel Percival made available a copy of his thesis on the Supreme Court site in Sydney and Jon Prangnell dug out his thesis on the Peel Island Lazaret. Alex Thorn assisted with the collection of archival material. Librarians at the Caroline Simpson Research Library, Historic Houses Trust of NSW, provided access to obscure materials and helped with research queries. The State Library of NSW provided permission to publish images from their collections. Staff and students in the Archaeology Program at La Trobe University, and the Department of Archaeology at the University of Sydney offered valuable feedback and ideas at different stages of the project. Specialist artefact advice came from various individuals, including Jerry Bell, Richard Cosgrove, Kris Courtney, Gary Crockett, Ian Evans, Jillian Garvey, Denis Gojak, Susan Lawrence and Linda Young. Susan Bridekirk did a splendid subeditorial job on the text.
We also appreciate the support of the Australasian Society of Historical Archaeology for agreeing to publish this book in the Society’s Monograph Series.