This exciting collection on a new movement in urban archaeology investigates the historical archaeology of urban slums. The "stuff" that is dug up--broken dinner plates, nails and plaster samples--will not quickly find its way into museum collections. But, properly interpreted, it yields evidence of lives and communities that have left little in the way of written records. Twelve case studies define a new field, which will attract the attention of a range of students and scholars outside archaeology, in particular, historical sociologists and historians.

This work unravels the myths surrounding the gold rushes in order to reveal the hidden histories of the Wiradjuri people, of the graziers and convicts who occupied the Wiradjuri lands, and of the multi-cultural gold boom community that endured for generations after the boom had passed.