Sherwood, Queensland, Australia
As a researcher, Lynley leads a major ARC Linkage project working with six Aboriginal Corporations in Cape York Peninsula, and an ARC Discovery project working with the Mirarr people, out of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University. Lynley is the Principal Archaeologist with WCH and responsible for overall management of the business. She is also the Cultural Heritage Advisor to the Gundjehmi Aboriginal Corporation, who represent the Mirarr people in Kakadu National Park, and to the GYGM Corporation, who represent the various traditional owners groups around McArthur River and Bing Bong port in the Northern Territory.Lynley has all-encompassing experience in undertaking both small and large scale archaeological research and cultural heritage management projects across Australia, most extensively in Qld and SA, but also in WA, NT and the ACT. Specialising in remote area fieldwork, Lynley has directed many rockshelter and open area excavations, archaeological geophysics surveys and site recording projects, as well as carrying out numerous community-focused ethnobotanical projects. Lynley has held research and teaching positions at the University of Qld, Flinders University, James Cook University and the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. For many years she has taught archaeology and cultural heritage management to Aboriginal community members, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate university students, and has both supervised and examined many research higher degree theses. During her career she has been awarded more than 40 research grants and has amassed an exceptional history of published works in both national and international journals, as well as numerous unpublished consulting and community reports. She is a former Editor of the flagship journal of the Australian Archaeological Association (AAA), 'Australian Archaeology'. A former President of AAA and the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc (AACAI), Lynley currently serves as the Vice-President for AACAI. Her formal qualifications include a PhD from ANU (2001) and a BSc(First Class Honours) from UWA (1994).
In this position I was responsible for contributing to ongoing major research projects, developing new project and grant proposals, project management, publishing research papers, carrying out archaeological research, management of AERC research higher degree (RHD) students and supervising RHD students. In particular I was researching ethnographic sources for information about Aboriginal uses of spinifex, and undertaking research into changing Aboriginal-environment relationships over the past 40,000 years in inland north Qld. I also had a major research project investigating phytolith production in northern Australian plants, including the development of an online database, and the application of phytolith analysis to archaeological rockshelter sites. I was also responsible for carrying out cultural heritage and archaeological consultancy projects as relevant to the AERC’s research interests.