To view the breadth of our services, please search our projects via the map below. You can search by type of project or location (LGA).
Location marks on the map are approximate. Projects involving Aboriginal archaeology and Aboriginal cultural heritage are not included in this map for cultural sensitivity reasons, but we have listed some of the Local Aboriginal Land Councils we have worked in.
Our interactive map allows you to search the type of project or locations where Artefact have worked.
Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram to see what our team here at Artefact Heritage and Environment are up to. We also like to share news from the fields of archaeology, history and heritage to promote the latest exciting developments in these areas.
Keep up to date with upcoming events, seminars and talks hosted by ourselves or our colleagues in the world of heritage.
There's always plenty happening with the team at Artefact so stay in the loop for all our latest news.
When you partner with Artefact, you’ll receive timely and accurate advice on how to integrate archaeology, heritage and environmental considerations into your project plans.
Artefact includes specialists across key fields of archaeology, heritage, environment, interpretation, architecture and history. More importantly, with 50 staff we can assemble a skilled in-house team targeted to your specific requirements.
HISTORICAL HERITAGE
As highly experienced project leaders, Artefact has been lead consultant on many major projects. Our planning and management systems ensure that projects are completed in a timely, professional manner, working in partnership with our clients.
Since 2010 Artefact is proud to have worked on a diverse range of large and small-scale infrastructure and development projects.
During this time we have built-up extensive experience in a variety of sectors including rail, roads, power and renewables, health, greenfields development and urban renewal.
Some of the more well-known projects we've been involved with include: Central Station Metro; Parramatta Light Rail; Sydney Metro City & Southwest; Wickham Transport Interchange; Northern Beaches Hospital; St Vincent’s Private Hospital; Concord Forensic Mental Health Unit; Sydney Harbour Bridge; The Northern Road Stages 1 & 2; Berry to Bomaderry Upgrade (Princes Highway); West Wyalong Solar Farm; and Wind Farm and Transmission Line projects in the Pilbara and Western NSW.
With almost 50 staff, and offices in Sydney and Newcastle, we can assemble a skilled in-house team targeted to your specific requirements.
For a personal response to your heritage and environment needs, please ask how we can tailor an integrated solution to suit your plans, your timeline and your budget.
Artefact have worked on almost all major rail infrastructure developments in NSW over the past decade.
Our proudest achievement is our team. We value their skills and talents, and we trust that you will too.
At Artefact we recruit staff who are passionate about the past, skilled in their disciplines and professional in their approach. We all understand the need to balance our rich local heritage with plans that shape the State’s future. These attributes contribute to a great team culture internally – and to exceptional advice and service for you. We support each other to make sure that our clients come first, which is why we have an industry-wide reputation for being responsive, innovative and authoritative.
SANDRA WALLACE, MANAGING DIRECTOR
Artefact was established in 2010 by Dr Sandra Wallace, who remains the company’s Managing Director.
What ever your heritage project we are here to assist.
Country or city, desktop or fieldwork, we’ve covered most of New South Wales and ACT.
Our advice and services are customised to offer the best guidance on how you can proceed, whatever your project type.
We consult right across the scale from neighbourhood architectural practices to multinational developers. But don't take our word for it! Check out our testimonials from our clients.
Digging In
What is it about former sites of industry that intrigues you?
I am fascinated by the way people interact with their places of work. Many industrial studies focus on the physical infrastructure, which is brilliant – we should understand what it is and why it works. But I think there is an opportunity to look further into these things and understand the social aspect of places of industry. How are people in the space? And what evidence is there of the people in the place after they leave?
Many labour jobs used to be ‘jobs for life’ and people built their lives around the places they worked. There are stories built into the spaces, of couples meeting, fathers and sons working side by side. These are just as important to me as the ‘stuff’ that allowed them to work.
I am also a huge fan of public and industrial architecture that contributes to placemaking.
"There used to be a lot of pride and craftsmanship in the delivery of utilitarian infrastructure, in a way I don’t think there is anymore."
Image: The Malmsbury Viaduct was constructed in 1862 from finely dressed bluestone. It is the largest masonry bridge in Victoria, with five 18.3 metre spans and a height of 25 metres. The railway continues to travel across this magnificent bridge.
What industrial heritage sites have you visited recently?
I was fortunate enough in September to attend a field trip weekend with the ICOMOS/TICCIH National Scientific Committee on Industrial Heritage. During the weekend we visited the Coliban Water System and Bendigo Gasworks.
The Coliban is a vast water channel system stretching across much of Central Victoria, established in the 1870s to ensure a stable water supply to Bendigo. Much of the system are still in use and provides drinking water to Bendigo and surrounds. There are portions of the scheme no longer in use, including large dams which have been converted into public recreation space.
The Bendigo Gasworks, which operated from 1860 to 1973) is one of three largely intact Gasworks precincts in the world, with the other two being in Great Britain. Bendigo Gasworks was producing coal gas for use in lighting and heating throughout Bendigo, with waste products such as coke and tar being on sold for other uses. The Bendigo Gasworks is unique as an example able to show the whole process, from coal arrival to gas storage. I was thrilled to be able to get in and check it out.
"The system is an amazing feat of engineering and uses fine stone and brick work, contributing positively to the built environment of the region."
Image: Steph at the late 19th Century Coliban Water System in Victoria.
What are the main challenges facing the adaptive re-use of industrial sites?
One of the biggest barriers to adaptation of industrial sites is contamination. Industrial spaces are often subject to considerable contamination, either from the production or from materials used in construction of the facility. Examples include leaching hydrocarbon contamination from gasholders, and abundance of asbestos in former electrical substations, and heavy metal leaching from mineral mining.
"While contamination is not a nail in the coffin of any adaptive project, it does need to be carefully considered."
Artefact has worked in many environments where potential contamination is an issue and we’re confident in working with site hygienists and environmental consultants to best manage the challenges identified.
Image: Steph recently visited the Bendigo Gasworks which was in operation from 1860 to 1973. Considerable remediation works have occurred over the last decade to clear the site of rubbish and undertake strategic decontamination.
What’s the most fascinating thing you’ve unearthed?
The question every archaeologist dreads! People are expecting the tales of grand finds, with treasure and easily identifiable pieces. Honestly, my favourite finds are the ones that don’t make sense. The ones that puzzle me. The plans don’t match the archaeology? Great! Why?
As I have already reflected on, archaeology for me is so much about the human – and when humans are involved, things rarely go to plan. Digging in (pun intended!) to see why things might not have been on the plan is the best part of the job.
To actually answer this though, finding an oyster shell in the basement of the former Coney Island Oyster Saloon (early 1900s) on Pitt Street is a pretty special one that will stick in my mind. As will my first archaeological dig, where I excavated the blade of a silver butter knife (from the late 19th or early 20th Century), which was missing its bone handle. The butter knife was found at the Old Boorolong Homestead, 30km northwest of Armidale.
"That object was so familiar to me, and yet had been left behind by a family around a hundred years ago. It was an awesome moment."
Image: Butter knife unearthed in 2012 at the Old Boorolong Homestead in Armidale NSW.
What’s your advice for those starting out in heritage?
Chase the dream but stay open minded. Be prepared for this to be different, to be nuanced, and to be complex.
Each new year has presented new challenges, new learnings and new opportunities – but they aren’t always in the form you expect. Consulting is not heritage in its purest form – it takes courage, and compromise and creativity. If you’re willing to learn the subtleties and work with your peers towards great solutions, it’s incredibly rewarding.
"This career has been almost nothing like I expected it would be, but I have loved it all the way through."
Image: Steph taking a short break during construction work on the 2017 Light Rail project that saw tracks extended through the Sydney CBD and out to the Eastern Suburbs.
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