A Followup Field Survey Lost Grave Sites: Cataraqui Shipwreck, King Island Tasmania (original) (raw)

I am not quite sure how i became involved in this project but have put the report up as it does not seem to be in any other repository. The Final Report, was an investigation into the re-establishment of the location of the main grave site of the victims of the wreck of the Cataraqui off the west coast of King Island in 1845 (Australia's worst maritime disaster). The victim's grave sites been lost over time, bur the originally 'fenced' main gave was, lost as well. In the Final Report the case was put foreword that perhaps the wreck should not have occurred in the first place, being the ironic victim of the economy and technology at that period of rapid change in the early nineteenth century. The early part of the final report looked to describing the setting and circumstances by which the Cataraqui and its passengers were to come to grief in such a horrible manner. It then went on to describe the historical evidence and existing evidence that led to the findings. The report describes the use and function of remote sensing and geophysical prospecting as a tool !o archaeological investigation, using dead reckoning in the first instance, and then the application of electronic instruments, the magnetometer, gradiometre, and resisitivity meter for investigating the potential presence of sub surface anomalies, namely the mass grave of some two hundred six individuals. The intention of this surrey was to extend the findings from the recon to a site specific location and there, through test bores, determine if there was. in fact. a grave at that position. It was also our intention not to excavate or exhume any of the victims if thee burial site was confirmed but to only establish. within reasonable certainty, the existence and location of the main grave. This survey exercise is specifically undertaken to support. with evidence d documentation, a tangible location in preparation for a memorial and celebration of the l50rh anniversary of the event of the disaster. to be held in 1995.