Archae-aus Cultural Heritage Management

04/11/2025

The stunning vistas of the northern wheatbelt 💜

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25/09/2025

We are back from a successful fieldtrip with Desert Peoples Perspectives Project. On Karajarri country south of Broome. Eating up a storm of seafood whilst excavating shell middens and recording fish traps.

10/09/2025

The Archae-aus research team are out with the UWA Desert People project team for the next two weeks on Karajarri country.

Recording sea country sites and maybe some excavations

07/08/2025

Sometimes it’s not just about archaeology, we dabble in the botanical as well! These are just some of the wild flowers in bloom right now up in the Pilbara

31/07/2025

Time for some more weeks of excavation with the Thalanyji and UWA, out on the stunning red dirt of Thalanyji country

26/03/2025

Under the windmill at Regan’s Ford

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20/12/2024

Last Friday our Managing Director and Company Owner graduated her Doctor of Philosophy at University of Western Australia in the discipline of Archaeology, School of Social Sciences. It’s been a 30 year dream of Fiona’s to complete a doctoral study and after 9 years of part time study juggling consulting, family, health issues and study she’s now Dr Hook!

The title of her thesis is “Early archaeology of the mangrove highway: 50,000 years of Aboriginal marine adaptations from Barrow Island, northwest Australia”.

Abstract
This thesis examines marine invertebrates from two sites on Barrow Island, northwest Australia. They were occupied 50,000 years ago and are uniquely positioned on the North West Shelf to sample early use of the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene coastlines. The study challenges the notion that coastlines were unproductive before sea-level stabilisation. It reveals the importance of marine resources, especially those from mangroves, to desert foragers. The study further details a 46,000 years ago record of shell knife manufacture and the making and wearing of shell beads in distinctive patterns as early as 11,000 years ago.

13/11/2024

Latest paper out by Archae-aus’ MD Fiona Hook on the 11,000 year old tusk shell beads from Boodie Cave on Barrow Island.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03122417.2024.2416278?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1sbXGecFKqCsYNAFzFfzk65H_VT2xTqtHob9o4aIC0ubP2-4nhK-vIpg0_aem_ZCieJ9ZtZyYgccaoU8Ahbw

Tubular segments of Scaphopoda (tusk shell) were traditionally used by Aboriginal peoples in the manufacture of ornate bead necklaces across northwest Australia. Twenty-seven scaphopod shell beads ...

13/09/2024

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/nU9h4vSHkVVVFTmW/?mibextid=ox5AEW

UWA Archaeology Seminar Series – All Welcome!

Re-evaluating the archaeological potential of the Swan Coastal Plain

Fiona Hook, Jo Thomson, Caroline Bird and Joe Dortch

Date + Time: Thursday 19 September, 3-4 PM

Venue: UWA Crawley Campus – ECON 373 Conference Room. This is located on the third floor of the Social Sciences (Old Economics) building at the Crawley Campus. Enter via the glass sliding doors at the front of the Social Sciences building, and access the third floor via the spiral stairs or the lift.

Abstract
“Sufficient test-pits have now been excavated in archaeological sites on Bassendean Sands to warrant the conclusion that any more would be a complete waste of time and money" (Bowdler, Strawbridge and Schwede 1991:24–5)”

For more than 30 years, this conclusion has discouraged archaeological excavations on the Swan Coastal Plain despite the arrival of new methodologies since 1991, including luminescence dating. In this seminar, we review the results of various recent mitigation projects on the Swan Coastal Plain involving excavation and shovel testing and suggest that a rethink of the archaeological values and potential of the region is long overdue.

Fiona Hook has over 30 years of expertise in Australia and Asia, known for successful large scale project delivery, involvement in professional archaeological organisations, and research at UWA.

Jo Thomson is a consultant archaeologist specialising in Australian First Nations archaeology and cultural heritage management, who has worked across Western Australia for 25 years in a variety of roles. She chairs the WA Chapter of AACAI.

Caroline Bird is an archaeologist with more than 40 years’ experience in a wide range of roles in consulting, research and heritage education and training in Western Australia, Victoria and the UK.

Joe Dortch is an archaeologist with more than 30 years’ experience in academic research and cultural heritage management and is currently Vice- President of the Australian Archaeological Association.