Arrawarra
Marine Field Station
Located at Arrawarra Headland, adjacent to the Solitary Island Marine
Park. the Marine Park supports substantial coral communities. The
station was established in the late 1960's to provide a base for
both teaching & research. The location of the station is ideal,
providing easy access to a full range of marine & estuarine
habitats. The rock-platform on the northern side of Arrawarra Headland
supports a very high diversity of plants and animals and has consequently
been fully protected by the regulations of the Solitary Island Marine
Park. More
Information...
Unique
Geology
Extract (Information at bottom of document)...
An unnatural stone arrangement at Arrawarra Beach, on the mid-north
coast of New South Wales, has been the subject of debate for at
least two decades. Previous archaeological research has produced
conflicting ethnographic and historical accounts of the origin and
use of the structure. The excavation of a large quantity of fragmented,
though well-preserved fishbone from a nearby shell midden has provided
a unique opportunity to investigate the questions of age, origin
and use of the stone structure.
To obtain high quality data for investigating fishing strategies
at Arrawarra Beach, particular attention has been paid to retrieval
and identification methodologies employed on the fishbone assemblage.
Small-mesh sieving ensured the recovery of the optimum amount of
fishbone from the deposit. Taxa previously unidentified from archaeological
sites on the mid-north coast of New South Wales have been identified
through increasing the number of diagnostic elements to include
some post-cranial elements.
The possible environments exploited for resource procurement were
identified through an ecological study of the fish represented archaeologically.
The Arrawarra 1 fishbone assemblage represents a fish 'catch' of
primarily small- to medium-sized taxa, with both carnivorous and
herbivorous species represented. A small number of larger, carnivorous
fish are also represented. The identification of taxa and their
habitats suggests a shallow-water environment, rich in food suiting
both the herbivorous and carnivorous fish. The rocky platform on
which the Arrawarra stone structure is constructed provides this
environment. A number of other fishing methods could account for
this assemblage, but the use of a large-scale fishing technology,
such as a stone fishtrap, provides a single means of obtaining the
resources represented by the archaeological assemblage.
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