The social archaeology of Blundell�s Cottage, Canberra

Blundell�s Cottage is one of the few surviving dwellings from the early European settlement in the Australian Capital Territory. It was built as part of Robert Campbell�s Duntroon Estate and was an attempt to replicate a late Georgian-style workers cottage. First constructed in the 1850s, it established the status of Campbell�s head ploughman above the other agricultural workers on the estate. Nevertheless, the cottage�s rooms remained multifunctional. When the Blundell family occupied the cottage later in the 19th century, they changed the appearance of the cottage, creating a complex where social hospitality could be promoted at the front with agricultural activities continuing at the rear. Successive occupants perpetuated this appearance of a comfortable, gentrified smallholding. Recent survey of the stratigraphy has analysed and interpreted the materials, craftwork and spaces to provide new insights into the social archaeology of an important pastoral complex that pre-dated the establishment of the nation�s capital.