The Quadrant in front of the Ultimo campus was the site of an archaeological dig 2001-2003 that uncovered an Aboriginal encampment thousands of years old. After white settlement this site experienced dramatic changes, including an outbreak of the Plague that lead to demolitions and burial of the old life beneath more than two meters of fill. This radical action had the unintended consequence of preserving the remains of Aboriginal and colonial history and the stories of those earlier lives are emerging from the ground beneath our feet.

The Torrens University Ultimo campus site is an important reminder of earlier lives and the changes over time that shape our modern world. It bears the traces of ordinary people doing the ordinary things of life. Often it is this ordinariness that is the most revealing of past realities.