Historic landmark unearthed in Freo: The West Australian 5/11/08

More than a century after it was demolished for a planned railway terminal, the remains of a 167-year-old settlers’ cottage in Pioneer Park have been unearthed to reveal a hidden chapter in Fremantle’s earliest history.

Extensive excavations since test digs in May found what was known as Mrs Tibbet’s cottage was a sturdy and substantial house with a cobblestone yard and well.

The find, part of a second-phase dig that began last week, also uncovered 1m limestone walls and traces of possible jarrah floorboards.

Archaeologist Jack McIlroy said yesterday it was an impressive cottage at about 9m by 4m and important to Fremantle.

There were also fragments of what appeared to be a wash house with a fire place and another building attached to it. He hoped other features would be found.

“All three buildings are shown on an 1844 plan of Fremantle so they had to be built some time between 1829 and 1844,” he said. “It’s certainly some of the earlier structures in Fremantle.”

Mr McIlroy said the team had also dug up partial foundations of what used to be a two-storey boarding house and the remains of two other houses. They found an 1841 four-penny piece from the Queen Victoria period.

“The old artefacts related to the house will probably be buried in the old outdoor dunnies and communal cesspits that used to be on this city block and we haven’t touched those areas yet,” he said.

Mr McIlroy said unearthing the cottage was an ideal opportunity to preserve a historical landmark and he expected there were many other old buildings to be dug up.

“There’s a great deal of old Fremantle that’s buried under the park here,” he said.

Settlement-era records suggest the cottage, believed to have been built in 1841, was inhabited by the Tibbets for many years.

The lot was owned by a John Thomas in 1880 and the cottage was rented to the Tibbets, who lived there between 1860 and 1893.

It is believed Mr Tibbet was a sailor and miner and that four people lived there.

Mr McIlroy said all the buildings on the site were largely demolished in 1906 for a proposed transcontinental railway terminal that was never built.

The site, opposite the railway station, will be filled to preserve it. Mayor Peter Tagliaferri said $45,000 had been allocated to protect the site.