The establishment of a consumer society in Australia has not been a particularly well explored area of academic inquiry. My interests lie in the concepts and meanings that underlie the material world; ideas like, in the words of Madonna, "I am a material girl and I live in a material world" (terminology taken to be not gender specific), the classic graffiti paraphrasing of Descartes: I shop therefore I am or perhaps simply in the "world of goods" in the more academically respectable terms of Douglas and Isherwood (1979). This book arises out of my longstanding interest in the early colonial period in Australia. In part it represents an extension of the purely "historical" research conducted for my Master's thesis in the Department of History at the University of Sydney which explored aspects of the diet, health and lived experience of con­ victs and immigrants during their voyages to the Australian colonies within the timeframe 1837 to 1839 (Staniforth, 1993a). More importantly, it is the culmina­ tion of more than twenty-five years involvement in the excavation of shipwreck sites in Australia starting with James Matthews (1841) in 1974, through the test excavation of William Salthouse in 1982, continuing with my involvement between 1985 and 1994 in the excavation of Sydney Cove (1797) and most recently with shore-based whaling stations and whaling shipwreck sites. In this respect, this book may be seen as an example of what Ian Hodder (1986, p.

Discusses the beginnings of Australia and argues that material goods were a necessary adjunct to the establishment of the colony

1. Introduction.- 1.1. Overview.- 1.2. Immigrant Societies.- 1.3. Dependent Colonies.- 2. The Archaeology of the Event.- 2.1. Introduction.- 2.2. Archaeology, Anthropology, and History.- 2.3. On the Relationships between Things, Words, and Ideas.- 2.4. The Annales School.- 2.5. The Archaeology of the Event.- 3. Capitalism, Colonialism, and Consumerism.- 3.1. Introduction.- 3.2. Capitalism.- 3.3. Colonialism.- 3.4. Consumerism.- 4. Methods and Sources.- 4.1. Introduction.- 4.2. Material Culture.- 4.3. Historical Documentation.- 4.4. Images.- 5. Port Jackson and the Wreck of Sydney Cove (1797).- 5.1. Introduction.- 5.2. Background-Port Jackson.- 5.3. Background-Calcutta.- 5.4. Historical Background-Sydney Cove.- 5.5. The Archaeological Excavation of Sydney Cove.- 5.6. The Cargo of Sydney Cove.- 5.7. The Chinese Export Porcelain Cargo of Sydney Cove.- 5.8. Chinese Export Porcelain in Australia.- 5.9. Conclusion.- 6. Port Phillip and the Wreck of William Salthouse (1841).- 6.1. Introduction.- 6.2. Background-Port Phillip.- 6.3. Background-Montréal.- 6.4. Historical Background-William Salthouse.- 6.5. The Archaeological Excavation of William Salthouse.- 6.6. The Cargo of William Salthouse.- 6.7. Conclusion.- 7. The Swan River Colony and the Wrecks of James Matthews (1841) and Eglinton (1852).- 7.1. Introduction.- 7.2. Background-Swan River Colony.- 7.3. Background-London.- 7.4. Historical Background-James Matthews.- 7.5. The Archaeological Excavation of James Matthews.- 7.6. The Cargo of James Matthews.- 7.7. Historical Background-Eglinton.- 7.8. The Archaeological Excavation of Eglinton.- 7.9. The Cargo of Eglinton.- 7.10. Conclusion.- 8. The Meanings of Things.- 8.1. Capitalism, Colonialism, and Consumerism.- 8.2. Building Construction Materials.- 8.3.Alcohol.- 8.4. Tobacco.- 8.5. Beverages.- 8.6. Personal Hygiene.- 9. Conclusion.- 9.1. Innovations of this Research.- References.- List of English-Metric Conversions.