Wagga-based Cultural Heritage Conservator believes Trail Street heritage is that of a ford

The roundabout of Trail and Johnston Streets by the Wollundry Lagoon was closed on Thursday morning by Wagga City Council to allow resurfacing works to be conducted.

Upon pulling up the road and digging into the ground, council workers discovered timber "pipe-like" findings.

Council general manager Peter Thompson said the wooden pipe-like structure likely dates back to the early European colonisation of the area.

Wagga-based cultural heritage conservator Robert Cooke has a different theory in mind and is confident the timber found by workers is that of a ford from the 1870s - a footbridge which was created in a shallow part of a river or stream to allow people to walk or drive across it.

"I looked at the timber work and where it was found and it lines up with the edge of where the footbridge used to be which they've taken out," Mr Cooke said.

"I think it's Yellow Box - it's not the type of timber you would use in any type of major construction - but it would have been good for some sort of embankment and then I thought; there would have been a crossing here because before it was a lagoon, this was all swamp, the street would have been swamp."

Mr Cooke said in the early days before white settlement in Wagga, the Wollundry Lagoon was the Wiradyuri people's fish hatchery which he said is documented by Mary Gilmore in her book Old Days, Old Ways.

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"I did some research on Trove, which is absolutely brilliant, and in the Wagga Express I fortunately found a piece from 1914 about the potential of a footbridge being put in here and earthworks being done where they pulled out some of the timber," he said.

"People said it was the embankment - that was the first confirmation I had that it was put in by the people of Newtown as a shortcut to get to the other side."

The conservator said the finding is remarkable given the state of the timber that was found.

"It's interesting to note that timber has survived this amount of time because I reckon it's from the 1870s," he said.

"I couldn't have seen it being put in much later than that because a lot of the houses in the area are from the 1890s.

"It's quite possible that the street is all fill and that explains why the timber is there, because when the swamp was there, it's more than likely the street was part of the swamp because in the 1870s none of these houses were here.

"Gurwood School was here, it'd be one of the earliest buildings here. This timber work would have extended right across what is now the lagoon."

Mr Cooke's degree leaves him with a skill that is few and far between, having been in the minority of those to pass a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural and Heritage Conservation the first time trying.

"When I started my course there were about eight chaps in my class and about 16 women and when I finished I was the only male who passed and there were three women who passed - it was a very hard course," he said.

"We had to do analytical chemistry and everything and in that course, on one side of the room we had the forensic police team - we were both doing the same course."

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