  We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) to make
observations of a sample of eight young ultra-compact HII regions, selected on
the basis that they have associated class II methanol maser emission. We have
made observations sensitive to both compact and extended structures and find
both to be present in most sources. The scale of the extended emission in our
sample is in general less than that observed towards samples based on IRAS
properties, or large single-dish flux densities. Our observations are
consistent with a scenario where extended and compact radio continuum emission
coexists within HII regions for a significant period of time.
  We suggest that these observations are consistent with a model where HII
evolution takes place within hierarchically structured molecular clouds. This
model is the subject of a companion paper (Shabala et al. 2005) and addresses
both the association between compact and extended emission and UCHII region
lifetime problem.
