8 May, 2015. 10:17
ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
OVER A hundred bottles of XXXX Bitter have been uncovered by school children at the Brisbane City Botanical Gardens during a class excursion.
Archaeologists from the University of Queensland (UQ) have been called in to survey the site and to establish if anything found has historical significance.
Professor Virginia Smith from UQ says this unprecedented discovery could be “Brisbane’s Stonehenge” as “so much of the city’s heritage and culture was built upon the Castlemaine Perkins brewery”.
“We’re all very excited to explore the site over the coming days – this is so very culturally significant to the country and people of south-west Queensland. People often ask why we become archaeologists… Well it’s because of moments like this. Finding something that will spend the rest of it’s days in a museum,” said Professor Smith.
“The artifacts that the team has uncovered already have blown me away, did you know a bottle of XXXX Bitter was two standard drinks? – that was the seventies though”
“Needless to say, this could be the most important archaeological discovery of the decade.”
The ancient stubbies have been sent to Castlemaine Perkins in Milton for verification and dating but a local urban legend states that the beer was buried in the park during the 1979 “Brisbane beer strike” by a local publican.
In September 1979, staff at the quintessential Queensland brewery downed tools for two long months in support of a log of claims that had built around the company voicing their intentions to take back that years bonuses and working conditions.
Castlemaine Perkins has yet to release a statement about the discovery.
With AAP
