Member Profiles: Oliver Brown

Professional Associations and Positions

Full Member, Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc (MAACAI)
Member - Australian Archaeological Association

Indigenous

• Site Survey
• Site Recording
• Excavation

Special Fields

• Survey, recording, excavation and management of Aboriginal archaeological sites
• GIS mapping (ESRI ArcGIS)
• Faunal analysis
• The Aboriginal archaeology of coastal NSW

Consulting Experience

I have been a Senior Archaeologist in the Sydney office of AHMS since merging my sole trader company OBCA with them in 2012. I have more than 12 years’ experience in commercial archaeology and Aboriginal cultural heritage management. I have also previously worked as the principal archaeologist at Total Earth Care and before that as a subconsultant in Sydney, an archaeological research assistant at the University of Sydney, a senior education officer at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and as a field archaeologist at the Oxford Archaeological Unit.

My consulting work has largely focused on the Aboriginal cultural heritage of coastal NSW, particularly around Sydney, with some work elsewhere in southeastern Australia (e.g. NSW Southern Highlands, Murray River basin). Most work has been completed for local councils, developers, mining companies, infrastructure companies and Aboriginal community groups.

My research work focuses on the foraging ecology of coastal Aboriginal people in NSW with other interests in methodological development in consulting archaeology, the application of optimal foraging theory to surface midden deposits, and the distribution of ground edge artefact evidence (grinding grooves) in sandstone country around Sydney. Previous research has also included a focus on the effects of scavengers on archaeozoological deposits (e.g. middens).

Selected Publications

In the last 10 years I have been the sole or principal author on more than 80 consulting reports, 4 peer reviewed publications, and 4 conference papers.