meet the team

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”
— Rebecca Bryant, Senior Heritage Consultant

Rebecca Bryant

SENIOR HERITAGE CONSULTANT

A woman with short dark hair and blue eyes wearing a black and white striped button-up shirt, smiling against a plain gray background.

Rebecca has been working in Aboriginal archaeology and cultural heritage for over 14 years. She manages a broad range of projects in consultation with Aboriginal communities. These vary from large state-significant infrastructure developments for government and private organisations, to smaller development applications for residential properties, and maintenance works within National Parks.

Rebecca has always been fascinated by the natural environment and the deep respect and care indigenous communities have for it.

Before her career in archaeology, Rebecca worked for World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Sydney and Southeast Asia for 11 years where she managed corporate partnerships, and Indigenous and non-indigenous community engagement projects.

    • BSC -Archaeology and Paleoanthropology (University of New England)

    • Masters of Research – Aboriginal Lithics (University of Sydney)

  • Archaeological research project based at the Australian Museum. The project used non-destructive chemical analysis techniques to match a large number of Aboriginal ground-edged stone implements from within the Sydney Basin to their geological source. This has helped us to better understand the role of these types of artefacts in trade and exchange systems in past Aboriginal societies. Coauthored publications in relation to this research.

  • First Nations

Rebecca’s artefact

Hand holding a dark, pointed, rough-textured stone.

“My artefact is a piece of basalt stone from the east cost of NSW. It was collected during my first archaeological field trip to select geological specimens for the Australian Museum. The Traditional Owners of the Sydney Basin recognised the superior strength and durability of this volcanic material long before the modern world. They quarried basalt of exceptional quality in the Central Coast region of NSW from at least 3,500 years ago to make a variety of different ground-edged tools, including beautifully crafted axes, which were traded over vast distances.”