Dig in South Australia

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Last weekend my brother and I went for a dig in Northern South Australia near an old farming town. This area suffered from lack of consistent rain and a lot of the farms and businesses etc were abandoned in the early 1900,s. We were put onto a lead from my sister inlaw who grew up in this area and were lucky enough to find a couple of dumps with one being quite a lot larger than the other. Unlucky for us though this first day digging was done in almost 40c temperatures with a howling northerly gale and after digging the first spot gave it away for several hours until slightly less wind and heat later in the day. This first spot produced a few pickaxe crown seals in normal beer and wine shapes and 3 bullet stoppers (2 S A Brewing Port Augusta and a Hygea Petersburg)plus a few stone bottles and a couple of blue castor oils and dated around 1920. We found 3 broken G Bs in this hole being a Halls Norwood, a Humphris Jamestown with just the blob top gone and a very rare A B & Co from Port Pirie in several pieces. The second site we dug in temps ranging from 35c down to about 30c over 3 days. This spot produced quite a lot of bottles including 3 maughams and 11 bullet stoppers , a Warners and 1 Eye Ointment Pot Lid and a very rare S A Hot Sauce bottle from D & R J Fotheringham of Gawler with the most surprising find of a New Zealand Mineral Water bottle. The cry bottles were 2 F. Humphris, Adelaide and Jamestown Lemon Squash bottles which I believe bring around $2,000 if you could get one.
Unfortunately the camera gave up after only 4 or 5 photos so did not get any shots of the second site

 

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The Maughams and Bullet Stopper Bottles

 

[pyshodoodle]

Looks like a good day! I love the eye ointment pot lid.[]

Kate

 

[kastoo]

Cool bottles, I spent 2 years in S. Australia at Woomera. I have been to Augusta, Port Pirie and Adelaide.

 

[madpaddla]

Great digs. Is it just very ash or dry there....? Do folks there tumble a lot of bottles. Last one for ya ...are there a lot of privy diggers there? Keep it up ..really nice to see different bottles. Any of those you keepin for you shelf?
Madpaddla

 

[capsoda]

Hey David, Good to hear from ya. Looks like a good dig. Great Melborne Warner's and I like the hot sauce too.

The wife wants to know what the cobalts are.

 

[TROG]

Hi Madpaddla,

The area where we dug is usually very dry and has an annual rainfall of about 10 inches, Most bottles from South Australia do need a tumble as because most areas are dry and the soil is alkaline these bottles get very sick. In other parts of Oz especially Victoria where it is generally a lot wetter a majority of bottles come out in good condition .There are not a lot of privy diggers( I only know of about 10 diggers in this state who regularly are looking for dig sites) over here as Adelaide which is the main and virtually only city in South Australia had town sewerage in the 1870s and was not all that large before that. Most small towns had a bucket pick up of there toilet waste which was dumped in trenches and therefore no privy holes .We do however find the odd house site where rubbish has been buried along the back fence line.

The picture below is of my brother in the first hole we found

ORIGINAL: madpaddla

Great digs. Is it just very ash or dry there....? Do folks there tumble a lot of bottles. Last one for ya ...are there a lot of privy diggers there? Keep it up ..really nice to see different bottles. Any of those you keepin for you shelf?
Madpaddla

 

[TROG]

Hi Warren,

The Cobalt bottles were an unbranded hair renewer, a couple of small made in Japan poisons, a castor oil, a tiny blackwoods ink from London and a Quibles infalible disenfectant from England

ORIGINAL: capsoda

Hey David, Good to hear from ya. Looks like a good dig. Great Melborne Warner's and I like the hot sauce too.

The wife wants to know what the cobalts are.

 

[RICKJJ59W]

Cool digs trog....
Now I know where the term "Down Under" came from,a bottle digger must have started it.[]