Paddock to Plate at the Barracks: Meat Cuts as a Socioeconomic Indicator in Nineteenth-Century Colonial Triabunna (Tasmania, Australia)

Abstract

The Triabunna Barracks transitioned from a military outpost supporting Tasmania’s Maria Island penal settlement to a public house in the mid nineteenth century. A zooarchaeological analysis of faunal remains offers insight into colonial-period subsistence, butchery practices, and the identity of its inhabitants. Comparison with historical cookbooks allows us to reconstruct meals consumed during its occupation. We find that mutton, beef, and pork were the primary meat sources, supplemented by kangaroo, both local and exogenous. Butchery evidence indicates continuation of British culinary traditions, with the reconstruction of meals reflecting a working and middle-class lifestyle of hearty meals, leisure, and social gatherings. The research presented in this paper significantly contributes to the understanding of Australian colonial settlement history from the point of view of the population’s social status, lifeways, and diet, contributing to emerging methodological and theoretical frontiers in Australian historical archaeology.