Within the shopping complex is a major archeological exhibition in a protected space in the underground car park.

This unique feature displays extensive relics with interpretive signage relating to the Fitz Roy Iron Works which had opened on the site in the late 1840s.

To commemorate the site’s importance, a talk on its history will be given by local historian, Dr Leah Day OAM, who has researched and studied the site over a period of nearly 30 years.

Dr Day will explain how a deposit of ‘bog iron’ was unexpectedly discovered at Nattai (as Mittagong was then known) during the building in 1833 of the Southern Road to Berrima and beyond.

In 1848 four ambitious men formed a syndicate and set about extracting the ore. At the time, the colony’s iron was supplied from Europe. The undertaking was named in honour of the then Governor, Sir Charles Fitz Roy.

A small cupola furnace commenced operations in 1849, ancillary buildings were constructed and the Fitz Roy Iron Works Company was formed. 

In 1863, on a site to the east of the works, a large cold-blast furnace was built by hand using local sandstone and bricks.

With plant and equipment, this site is referred to as the second works.

Converted to hot-blast in 1865, the furnace operated for 13 years but failed to meet expectations.

It was shut down in 1877 and demolished in 1922.

In 1948, to mark the centenary of the Ironworks and to acknowledge Mittagong as the birthplace of the Australian iron and steel industry, a trachyte cairn was unveiled on the second site (now Ironmines Oval) in 1948. 

The remnants of the earlier works had reverted to nature and been forgotten, and it was long assumed that the second site was the only site of the works.

In 2005, based on historical records, an archaeological excavation was undertaken and some of the foundations of the earlier iron works were located.

In 2006 Woolworths erected the shopping complex on the site and retained the relics in the car park.

Dr Leah Day will recount more about the history of the iron works and its major impact on the development of Mittagong. 

The public is invited to this event and to meet at the Highlands Marketplace, near the BIGW store at 11 am on February 25.

From there they will be guided to the Fitz Roy Iron Works archaeological site for the talk.