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GODDEN MACKAY works, from horse droppings,cesspits and so on, would have been commonplace, at least in the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s, and they must have combined to assail the noses of the middle class observers and visitors. Miasmic smells were also thought to cause disease, hence the conflation of such areas, and their people, with ill-health and death. In reality it was not the smells, but the conditions of high-density urban life which allowed diseases to sweep through the population. In spite of evidence of domesticity, comfort, self-respect and measure of personal cleanliness, the families of unskilled labourers and skilled tradesmen of neighbourhoods such as these bore the heaviest suffering and losses during each terrible nineteenth century epidemic 12 . But the site also offers some signs of considerable improvement in standards of living in the last decades of the century, precisely the period which historical sources and interpretations suggest were characterised by decline and decay. The connection of the houses to the sewerage system, and to water and gas mains, improved hygiene and comfort enormously, while enclosed stoves eliminated the hazards and mess of open fires (though not the heat and smells). Streets and lanes were paved in hard surfaces, drains and gutters were built of stone. Caraher's soap and candle works just to the south were shut down and demolished in 1881. As we shall see, Rocks people were themselves active over the decades in lobbying the Sydney Corporation for improvements in their local urban environments. Rubbish removal services improved towards the end of the century, as is indicated by the fall in numbers in some types of artefacts. Although Rocks houses were almost always described as cheap and poorly built, those on the site were quite solid or substantial, and many showed signs of having been repaired and improved over the years. There were numerous attempts to deal with the drainage problems inherent in the location and topography of the site, and paint and mortar were applied to combat damp walls 13 . While infant mortality was still shockingly high overall, the rate actually fell considerably in the inner city neighbourhoods from 1880, while it rose in the outlying suburbs. The improved chances of city-born babies were most likely a result of better sanitary facilities and practices 14 • What the artefact assemblages and building foundations reveal, in balance, is that sweeping generalisations over time about 'slums' and 'slum dwellers' are unfounded. These are derogatory stereotypes which tell us more of the fears, language and shared understandings of the observers than the people they 'observed'. This does not mean that there were no problems of social and economic inequity, poverty, disease, or poor living conditions in Sydney. There were certainly difficulties in the processes of urban consolidation and growth on this site, as on others, though they were partly mitigated in time. The point is that these were not necessarily connected to, or the same as, widespread, constant Karskens, Grace 161
GODDEN MACKAY and severe poverty, filthy bodies, low morals or criminal behaviour in a sinister other- or underworld. There were undoubtedly pockets or alleys or courtyards of extreme poverty and degradation in other parts of the Rocks and Sydney; they too may have changed for the better or worse over time. It seems that the middle class observers and improvers sought out and visited the worst of places, selected and focused upon certain aspects of what they saw, and employed a well-known stock of rhetoric to synthesise these into images of 'slums'. These images were then expanded to portray the morals and lifestyles of working people as a whole. Some observers even noted signs of cleanliness, domesticity and community, as we have found on this site, but failed to alter their prejudicial judgements of working people's neighbourhoods 15 . It appears likely, then, that nineteenth century class barriers may have had more to do with the construction of such images, than with actual habits and lifestyles of working people themselves. The cultural and physical separation of working from middle class people was accompanied by a hardening of middle and upper class attitudes, to the extent that fear and loathing of working people made them seem scarcely human. But if working people lived in many other parts of Sydney, some of which might well have endured much worse conditions, why was the Rocks so often singled out for moral and social condemnation? Why was this particular neighbourhood invested with such notoriety? Was there something in the cultural behaviour or social profile of the people there which marked the Rocks out as separate, different from other places? Had they perhaps held on to the old habits of the convict generations which the rest of Sydney had left behind? At one level, it is clear that the site's people had the same material possessions and habits (matched up-to-date china, typical glassware and cutlery assemblages, fashionable beads and buttons and so on) as any other neighbourhood in Sydney, and even strands which indicate that notions of domesticity and moral order were similar to those of the middle class. Other signs speak of a distinctly working people's neighbourhood: evidence of working at home; clay pipes of the sort commonly associated with working people throughout the Nineteenth Century; 16 proximity to workplaces; the close configuration of houses; a certain pragmatism in the re-use and reshaping of some of the artefacts and in rubbish disposal patterns. These would probably be found in any neighbourhood of similar social profile. But overlaying the 'typical' assemblages were some subtle patterns of distinction. There was a higher occurrence of glass decanters, particularly the ring-necked 'Irish decanters', evidently in use here well after they had fallen out of favour generally. This is a striking continuity with the communal drinking patterns of the early period, when people are often glimpsed with decanters or bottles in their hands, fetching rum from nearby hotels and returning to their homes to share it with Karskens, Grace 162
Page 1 and 2: Figure 2.23 Women and children, who
Page 3 and 4: GODDEN MACKAY a witness at their we
Page 5 and 6: GODDEN MACKAY A considerable number
Page 8 and 9: Figure 2.25: Rising literacy: writi
Page 10 and 11: GODDEN MACKAY The culture of later
Page 12 and 13: Figure 2.27 Dental hygiene? Two of
Page 14 and 15: Figure 2.28 Babes in the wood: two
Page 16 and 17: GODDEN MACKAY finger and afterwards
Page 18: 2.3.6 Endnotes GODDEN MACKAY 1 For
Page 21 and 22: GODDEN MACKAY 38 Waterhouse, Privat
Page 25: GODDEN MACKAY tasty sauces and cond
Page 31: GODDEN MACKAY also examines the way

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