Metro Tunnel -
Beneath the City
Victoria's Big Build
How do you bring a buried chapter of Melbourne into view?
Before work on the Metro Tunnel could move underground, archaeologists were uncovering another city beneath our feet.
Layers of soil revealed traces of earlier streets, buildings and everyday lives. Objects hidden for generations offered clues to the people who had lived and worked there.
Clipo was commissioned to document the archaeological process and discoveries, alongside a series of videos sharing stories about the making of the tunnel.
Our role was to follow the work closely and help audiences understand what was being uncovered, how it was being interpreted and why it mattered.
From the scale of an excavation site to an earring held between fingertips, the films connect a city’s changing landscape with its human history.
At a glance
Metro Tunnel archaeological investigations
On-location documentary filming
Archaeologists + heritage specialists
Community participants + students
Excavation, artefact research + conservation
Expert interviews + detailed object photography
Public information / Community engagement / Heritage storytelling
The Client Brief
Open up the dig to a wider audience.
The archaeological investigations offered an unusual opportunity to explore Melbourne’s past ahead of major construction.
Clipo was contracted to document that work and share the stories emerging from it.
The films needed to make a specialist process understandable to people unfamiliar with archaeology, while communicating the curiosity and care involved.
What were the teams looking for? What could an ordinary object reveal? And what happened to a discovery after it left the ground?
Those questions gave audiences a way into the work.
Our Approach
We combined interviews with footage of the archaeological work as it unfolded.
Wider views establish the excavation sites and the people working within them. Closer images draw attention to careful hands, exposed structures and the details of individual finds.
Moving between those scales helps viewers understand both the size of the undertaking and the patience it requires.
The people involved guide us through the process. Archaeologists and heritage specialists bring their knowledge, while students and community participants add the experience of encountering the dig first-hand.
Together, those perspectives make the investigation feel accessible and alive.
Small objects. Human stories.
A child’s slingshot. A glass bottle. An earring.
The most compelling discoveries can be surprisingly ordinary.
In the archaeology film, close-up images give these objects room to be seen. Their shape, texture and small details become part of the storytelling.
A label provides a name or date. Expert interpretation helps us understand their significance. The viewer begins to imagine the people who might once have held, used or worn them.
That movement from object to person is central to the film.
It brings the history of a changing city down to a scale we can relate to.
Beyond the excavation
Finding an object is the beginning of understanding it.
The film follows the work beyond the dig itself, into the spaces where artefacts are examined, researched and cared for.
These scenes reveal another side of archaeology: the detailed work of making sense of what has been found.
By bringing fieldwork, research and conservation into the same story, we help audiences see how a discovery becomes part of a wider understanding of the past.
A public project, shared stories
The community has a place in this film too.
Visitors, students and participants bring their own curiosity to the archaeological work. Their presence connects the investigation with the city around it and gives viewers another way to recognise themselves in the story.
For Clipo, that human connection is an essential part of documenting a major project. Alongside the machinery, schedules and technical expertise are people discovering something, learning something and finding reasons to care.
The Outcome
The films created a way for audiences to encounter work that would otherwise have been difficult to see.
They document the process, introduce the people behind it and share discoveries from a landscape undergoing enormous change.
As the Metro Tunnel took shape, these stories gave Melbourne a chance to look closely at what lay beneath it.