An old toothpaste pot might not sound like treasure. But a nineteenth-century lid found by a ’bottle collector’ digging at a derelict site in St Kilda, a suburb of Melbourne, is said to be worth more than $10,000 Australian. The find is reported in the Herald Sun newspaper, which describes how treasure hunters have descended on the coastal building site, despite the digs being illegal and a state law that prohibits the sale of finds older than 50 years.
But as the bottle collectors say, they are retrieving material that would otherwise be destroyed.
The diggers, who would not give their names, said they had asked for council permission to methodically excavate the site.
“The council didn’t give us permission to save the history,” one said. [...] Collectors believe the site will be excavated mechanically for underground parking and whatever is buried there will be lost.
‘Bottle collector’ is the term given to treasure hunters who dig at historical sites in Australia. There has been much anguish over how to limit the damage done by these looters and how best to regulate and legislate. In her fine book Uncovering Australia (2002), Sarah Colley described how “Heritage Victoria (the agency responsible in that state) has recently introduced an amnesty on some bottle-collecting activities and is working to educate people about the damage their activities can do to important historical sites – while devising ways archaeologists and collectors can work together for mutual benefit.” (p.125)
But the problem remains, and the gulf between treasure hunters and archaeologists is wider than ever. A 2006 report by the Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology [pdf] highlights the “large collecting clubs of metal detectorists and bottle collectors who illegally excavate and sell their finds.” (p.15) The impact of their activities is “devastating” and “second only to works of major infrastructure development in its significance.”
“Currently the collectors not only have a belligerent attitude to government and a perceived view that government is trying to deny them the right to go and collect but they fear prosecution. Thus if they find an intact site which they know contains rare items they do not disclose where they found them to any authority, fearing they will be prosecuted for digging the sitle, will have their objects confiscated, and will be prevented from going on the land in the future as it is locked up. There is no incentive to inform and no encouragement from government that such behaviour would be rewarded. In a desperate effort to protect the resource authorities have threatened prosecution to offenders as the only reward for reporting.”
Tags: Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology, Australia, bottle collecting, bottle collectors, heritage victoria, looting
