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.
Walking Books
What brought you to Artefact?
My original plan was to be a filmmaker, so after school I did a few years at film school with a focus on recording history.
I’ve always been interested in social impacts affecting Indigenous people so I made a short documentary called "Walking Books" about an Aboriginal Elders group in Fairfield.
The project was inspired by my Mum’s journey from Darwin to Sydney in 1968. She was raised by her Aunties in the Northern Territory but it wasn’t until after the referendum where Australians voted to count us Aboriginal people as part of the population that she felt empowered enough to move and raise her daughter the way she wanted.
In 2017 I saw this tiny advert from a company called Artefact that said, “are you a mum or a dad? Do you want to work part-time as part of a close-knit team?” I didn’t know anything about archaeology or the heritage sector – I’d never met an archaeologist before in my life! – but they seemed to like me and put me on 3 days a week in an admin role. It’s gone from there…
I was Admin Assistant, then the Office Manager for a while and now I’m an ACHO (Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officer) in the Country and Culture Team.
"In the end I wasn’t a big enough diva to be in the film and TV industry, so I thought I’d try something different."
Image: Kelly at Sydney Film School.
How would describe your role?
A big part of what I do now is consulting with Community. I have the privilege of doing archaeological excavation and salvage work on sites around NSW. As part of that my role is to liaise with the Local Aboriginal Land Councils, talk with the elders and traditional custodians and engage Registered Aboriginal Parties to work with us in the field.
In addition to archaeology, I work a lot with the NSW Government Architect’s "Connecting with Country" framework, as well as Cultural Values Assessments. I also work closely with Artefact’s Aboriginal Heritage Team doing cultural heritage assessments and site surveys.
"The best part of the job is site-work - I love it. It feeds my soul to be out on Country with mob."
It feeds my spirit to be on Country with the Aboriginal Community sharing knowledge with each other. To understand what a site of significance is and to hold Aboriginal artefacts in my hand – some of which could be thousands of years old – is a real honour. It’s amazing to think that for every 10cm we dig that’s 100 years of history that we’re looking at.
Image: Kelly recently led a Connecting with Country workshop in St Marys in Sydney.
What's your biggest challenge?
As a very spiritual person, and with Aboriginal people being taught from an early age to never collect, keep, or remove rocks from Country, my job is quite a contradiction because it literally involves digging up, investigating and assessing stone artefacts.
"Whenever I go into the field, I always ask for permission from the spirits of the Country to be there."
I ask the old people (descendants who have passed) of that place - as well as my own ancestors - to protect me while I conduct work that involves disturbing sands and soils containing cultural materials which have been there for thousands of years.
Image: Kelly participating in a Smoking Ceremony at the opening of Artefact's Newcastle Office.
What’s been your hardest project?
The most challenging job I’ve ever worked on kicked off 5 weeks before Christmas.
Human remains were accidently uncovered on a construction site in Sydney and we were called in to conduct an archaeological salvage excavation. Working alongside the Aboriginal custodians It was our job to go through a huge stockpile of sand and debris and recover all the human bones.
It was the middle of summer and the site was contaminated so we had to wear full PPE (personal protective equipment) and it was really uncomfortable and hot. The conditions were tough but not as hard as the emotional side of having to deal with ancestral remains.
In the end we recovered every single piece of bone from the site so those who were culturally responsible for them could lay the remains to rest in a place where they would not be disturbed again.
"We recovered every single piece of bone from the site so the remains could be laid to rest."
Image: Kelly inspecting and cataloguing Aboriginal artefacts.
Has the role changed you?
Having worked at Artefact for 7 years, I now see Country very differently.
I’ve been trained to look at the lay of the land. I can now see the way nature has changed over time, like the cuts of the land, where they’ve put roads in and fully cut through Country. I’ve learnt this new way of seeing from people like Uncle Aaron Taylor or Artefact’s geomorphologist Tony Barham. I have an understanding of how the land changes over time. On a recent site visit, Cultural Site Officer Uncle Aaron Taylor explained to me that the crushed-up shale we were seeing was related to the movement of the land in the Sydney Basin over millions of years. I can see some of that now from a scientific perspective with more of a geological lens.
And then I also see the Songlines, which help show the connections between this Country to that Country. Songlines are kind of like Google Maps – they give directions and show how everything is linked. This place is not just one little part - it’s one big massive country even though it is broken up into little Countries. Songlines make their way all across Australia – and I can now see those as well.
"Working in Aboriginal archaeology has allowed me to see Country as it is now, how it was, and how it might be in the future."
Large areas of Western Sydney are now completely different from 20 years ago. With the development of the new Sydney airport, the country’s completely flat now. It used to be undulating and had character and now it’s flat. But it’s still Country – it is going forward into the future but it’s still Country.
I can’t believe I started out doing admin and was behind-the-scenes buying equipment and tools for the archaeology teams and now I’m out there myself in the field. I never thought I’d be out there doing this.
Doing cultural heritage work has opened up so many doors for me – so I’m thankful for that. I now realise more than ever that I’m a custodian, we all have an obligation to look after County.
Image: Kelly participating in a Smoking Ceremony at the opening of Artefact's Newcastle Office.
What changes have you seen in Aboriginal Heritage?
When I started out, I think it was more about the objects and the artefacts – the tangible things that we found in the ground. Now I think there’s more of an appreciation of the intangible.
The Connecting with Country framework is about actually talking with the knowledge holders – hearing their stories and understanding the value they put on things. I’ve been involved with Connecting with Country workshops where you’ve had knowledge holders who have decades of knowledge and this is the first time they’ve ever been sitting at the table at the start of a new development project instead of just being brought in at the end.
Aboriginal people are now contributing to the actual look and feel of new built infrastructure. We’re contributing to the changing face of NSW.
Aboriginal culture is typically not recorded but that’s changing now and we’re seeing our culture reflected in new buildings through architecture and design. There’s this great example of the Dharawal dilly bags that came home from England after hundreds of years. When Community looked at them they had never seen that type of weaving technique before. So those traditional methods can be used to inspire building design.
The way those string bags were made can be represented through architectural styling and patterning and implemented into the new buildings.
"The opportunity is there now to pay tribute to the elders, to give back to the old people and their culture but in a modern way."
Image: ‘Galara’ (fish harpoon - Dharug language) is a sculpture by artist Nicole that adorns the side of a new 18-storey building in Redfern.
Does the NAIDOC Week theme ‘keep the fire burning! blak, loud & proud’ resonate?
While Australian Aboriginal Culture is the oldest living culture in the world, the Aboriginal Heritage Sector is still very young. Aboriginal people are the ones who need to drive and direct the industry as it involves our history.
We need to protect heritage for all generations, the past, present and future – for the benefit of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.
I’d love to see all Aboriginal people have a trained eye for artefacts and be able to recognise sites of significance – it’s a skill that my people should all have from birth.
"For too long now, Aboriginal cultural practice and access to traditional lands has been denied to Aboriginal people - knowledge is power."
Working in the archaeology industry will have you seeing the world in a whole different light. There are still many evident connections to the old people, and their traditional ways you just have to know what to look for.
Image: Kelly with the Artefact team on an archeological excavation site near Newcastle.
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