64 HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY 43(3) Historical Archaeology, 2009, 43(3): 64–80. Permission to reprint required. Susan Piddock Pam Smith F. Donald Pate A Changed Landscape: Horticulture and Gardening in the Adelaide Hills Face Zone, South Australia, 1836–1890 AbstrAct the Adelaide Hills Face Zone cultural Heritage Project examined landscape use in an area of the Adelaide Hills of south Australia following European colonization. Protected by legislation that controlled development and agriculture in the area, the Hills Face Zone preserved a relict colonial landscape where a diversity of archaeological sites remained. A range of activities that had transformed the natural environment and created this new landscape were identifed, including the creation of home and market gardens, experimental horticultural activities, and the establishment of plant nurseries. because the knowledge and experiences brought by the colonists from England were of limited use in this new environment, cultural adaptation and innovation played an important part in the transformation of the landscape. Introduction Within a few years of the establishment of the colony of south Au stralia in 1836, the Adelaide Hills landscape had undergone significant changes. the natural landscape of Eucalypt forest had been felled, and the valleys and hillsides were transformed to resemble the cultivated rural landscapes of britain and Europe. commercial market gardens, nurseries, vineyards, and orchards as well as the private gardens of colonists from all social strata of society occupied the fertile valleys and covered the hillsides. the Adelaide Hills were also quarried for stone, and there was a prospecting boom as the colonists sought precious minerals (bender and Piddock 2006). the archaeological evidence of this activity allows understanding of some of the forces at work in the Adelaide Hills that transformed the landscape from how it appeared in 1836 to the landscape visible today. the part played by colonial horticultural and gardening practices is particularly important to this transformation. these practices were based on knowledge and technologies introduced from England and Europe, several of which were inappropriate for the Australian environment. the Mount Lofty ranges and, in particu- lar, the western face of the ranges, have long been valued for contributing to the aesthetic environment of the city of Adelaide (Figure 1 and 2). As early as 1836, colonel William Light, surveyor-general to the new colony of south Australia, referred to the ranges as “those enchanted hills.” In 2007, the implementation of planning regulations under the 1962 Metropoli- tan Development Plan resulted in the protection of this region, now known as Adelaide’s Hills Face Zone, from urban development and inten- sive agriculture and horticulture for more than 40 years. this legislation also protected a rare model of 19th-century European colonization, which provides a window into understanding south Australia’s colonial past (smith and Pate 2006). Over three years between March 2002 and March 2005, staff and students from the Depart- ment of Archaeology at Flinders University participated in the Hills Face Zone cultural Heritage Project. Archaeological feld surveys were undertaken to identify the archaeological and historical evidence for 19th-century colo- nization within the study area, which measures 90 km long (ca. 56 mi.) and between 5 and 10 km wide (ca. 3 to 6 mi.) (Figure 3). the project aimed to document indigenous and European cultural impacts on the landscape of the Adelaide Hills Face Zone, identify and document sites of cultural heritage signifcance, and recommend selected sites as cultural tour- ism destinations. Once the fieldwork was completed and the data had been interpreted, the project’s chief investigators concluded that Adelaide’s Hills Face Zone (HFZ) was not only a signifcant colonial landscape but also one of the best-preserved historic landscapes representing the era of 18th- and 19th-century European global expansion and colonization in the world. It was also established that the HFZ fulfls each of the Burra Charter’s