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Josephine McDonald
Dr.
Josephine
McDonald
Contact Details
jo.mcdonald@uwa.edu.au
08 6488 4360
0418 162 781
35 Stirling Highway
CRAWLEY
6009
WA
Australia
Professional Details
Centre for Rock Art Research + Management, University of Western Australia
* BA (Hons), University of Sydney* PhD, Australian National University
Anywhere; anytime
Full Member, Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc. nPresident, Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc. (1993-1997) nMember, Australian Archaeological Association Inc. nPresident, Australian Archaeological Association Inc. (1997-1998) nMember, Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies nMember, Australian Rock Art Association
Over 700 contracts undertaken in 35 years of consulting experience. The majority of these studies have involved archaeological survey, site assessment, salvage and management, on a range of site types (shelters with art and deposit, engravings, middens, open camp sites, quarries, scarred trees, burials). Several large regional studies dealing with resource assessment, research and management planning have also been completed. I have acted as an Expert Witness in the NSW Land and Environment Court and in Native Title matters.

The majority of this principal consulting experience has been done in New South Wales, and Western Australia. I have specialised in the archaeology of the Sydney Basin and rock art and heritage planning more broadly I have worked on coastal sites , undertaking intensive analysis of several major midden sites in the Sydney and Pilbara regions. These excavations have included significant salvages of human skeletal remains, including Narrabeen Man from Sydney's northern beaches. For a major regional study of rock art in the Sydney Basin I have recorded many engraving and shelter art sites. I have recorded rock art in the arid zone in New South Wales and Western Australia. The excavation and strategic management of open artefact scatters in western Sydney was a focus for several decades. I have project managed large test excavation programmes involving many open sites in the Rouse Hill Development Area (RHIP Stage 1 - 3) and at the ADI Site in St Marys. I was involved in the most phases of planning at the former ADI Site in St Marys (the Western, Eastern, Ropes Creek and Dunheved Precincts) and strategic planning of the SEPP59 lands at Eastern Creek (including the application of the strategic management model to subsequent development precincts including salvage projects at the M7 Hub and Eastern Creek Precinct 3).
In 2005, 2006 I co-wrote the scientific values report to Department of Environment & Heritage in relation to the Dampier Archipelago WA National Heritage List (NHL) nomination, undertaking detailed analysis of the engraving sites as part of this reporting process. I have since been involved in the assessment of Outstanding Universal Values of the Dampier Archipelago - for World Heritage Listing.
Extensive field and research experience has been obtained in South Australia (1982, 1985, 2000), Queensland (1985-1987) the Northern Territory (1986) and Western Australia (2000- now). I completed my PhD thesis in November 1994.
The Centre for Rock Art Research and Management works collaboratively with Indigenous communities and Industry to ensure best practise rock art research and heritage management.
McDONALD, J.J. 1982 On the Write Track. Unpublished BA (Hons) thesis, University of Sydney, Sydney.McDONALD, J.J. 1991 Archaeology and art in the Sydney region: Context and theory in the analysis of a dual medium style. In P. Bahn and A. Rosenfeld (eds), Rock Art and Prehistory, pp.78-85. Oxford: Oxbow Books.McDONALD, J.J. 1992 Rock art in the Sydney region: Synchronic and functional variation in a dual-media, regional art body. In J.J. McDonald and I. Hascovich (eds), State of the Art: Regional Studies in Australia and Melanesia, pp.20-36. AURA Publication 6. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association..McDONALD, J.J. 1992 The Great Mackerel Rockshelter excavation: Women in the archaeological record? Australian Archaeology 35:32-50.McDONALD, J.J. 1992 The Archaeology of the Angophora Reserve Rockshelter: Helping the Police with their Enquires. Environmental Heritage Monograph Series 1. Sydney: New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service.McDONALD, J.J. 1993a The depiction of species in macropod track engravings at an Aboriginal art site in western New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum, Supplement 17:105-116.McDONALD, J.J. 1994a Dreamtime Superhighway: An Analysis of Sydney Basin Rock Art and Prehistoric Information Exchange. Unpublished PhD thesis, Australian National University, Canberra.McDONALD, J.J. 1995 Looking for a woman's touch: Indications of gender in shelter sites in the Sydney Basin. In J. Balme and W. Beck (eds), Gendered Archaeology: The Second Australian Women in Archaeology Conference, pp.92-96. Canberra: ANH Publications, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.McDONALD, J.J. 1996 The conservation of landscapes - A strategic approach to cultural heritage management. In S. Ulm, I. Lilley and A. Ross (eds), Australian Archaeology '95: Proceedings of the 1995 Australian Archaeological Association Annual Conference, pp.113-121. Tempus 6. St Lucia: Anthropology Museum, University of Queensland.McDONALD, J.J. 1998 Shelter art in the Sydney Basin - A space-time continuum: Exploring different influences on stylistic change. In C. Chippendale and P. Tacon (eds), Rock Art: New Directions in Archaeology, pp.319-335. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.McDONALD, J.J. 1998 Beyond hook, line and dillybag: Gender, economics and information exchange in prehistoric Sydney. In M. Casey, D. Donlon, J. Hope and S. Welfare (eds), Redefining Archaeology: Feminist Perspectives, pp.96-104. Canberra: ANH Publications, Australian National University.McDONALD, J.J. 1999 Bedrock notions and isochrestic choice: Evidence for localised stylistic patterning in the engravings of the Sydney region. Archaeology in Oceania 34(3):145-160.McDONALD, J.J. 2000 Media and social context: Influences on information exchange networks in prehistoric Sydney. Australian Archaeology 51:54-63.McDONALD, J.J. 2000 Archaeology, rock art, ethnicity and Native Title. In I. Lilley (ed.), Native Title and Transformation of Archaeology in the Postcolonial World, pp.54-77. Oceania Monograph 50. Sydney: Oceania Publications, University of Sydney.McDONALD, J.J. 2000 The dating dilemma: Problems in interpreting charcoal AMS dates from the Sydney region. In G.K. Ward and C. Tuniz (eds), Advances in Dating Australian Rock Markings: Papers from the First Australian Rock-Picture Dating Workshop. AURA Occasional Publication 10. Melbourne: ARARA.JO MCDONALD CULTURAL HERITAGE MANAGEMENT Pty Ltd 2005 Salvage Excavation of Six Sites along Caddies, Second Ponds, Smalls and Cattai Creeks in the Rouse Hill Development Area, NSW. Australian Archaeological Consultancy Monograph Series 1. St Lucia: Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc.McDONALD, J.J. 2005a Australia: “Rock Art Capital Of The World”. In T. Murray (ed.), Archaeology in Australia. Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publications.McDONALD, J.J. 2005b Archaic faces to headdresses: The changing role of the rock art across the arid zone. In P. Veth, P. Hiscock and M. Smith (eds), Desert Peoples: Archaeological Perspectives, pp.116-141. Boston: Blackwell.McDONALD, J.J. 2005c Archaeology in the De Rose Native Title Claim. In R. Harrison, J. McDonald and P. Veth (eds), Archaeology and Native Title, pp.43-62. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2. Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies.McDONALD, J.J. 2006 Rock-Art. In J. Balme and A. Patterson (eds), Archaeology in Practice: A Student's Guide to Archaeological Analyses. Malden: Blackwell Publishing.McDONALD, J.J. and I. Hascovich (eds) 1992 State of the Art: Regional Studies in Australia and Melanesia. AURA Publication 6. Melbourne: Australian Rock Art Research Association.McDONALD, J.J., K.C. Officer, D. Donahue, T. Jull, J. Head and B. Ford 1990 Investigating 14C AMS: Dating prehistoric rock art in the Sydney Sandstone Basin, Australia. Rock Art Research 7(2):83-92.McDONALD, J.J. and A.C. Ross 1990 Helping the police with their enquires: Archaeology and politics at Angophora Reserve rockshelter. Archaeology in Oceania 25(2):114-121.McDONALD, J.J., E. Rich and H. Barton 1994 The Rouse Hill Infrastructure Project (Stage 1) on the Cumberland Plain, western Sydney. In M.E. Sullivan, S. Brockwell and A. Webb (eds), Archaeology in the North: Proceedings of the 1993 Australian Archaeology Association Conference, pp.259-293. Darwin: North Australian Research Unit, Australian National University.McDONALD, J.J. and P. Veth 2006. Rock art and social identity: A comparison of graphic systems operating in arid and fertile environments in the Holocene. In I. Lilley (ed.), Archaeology of Oceania: Australia and the Pacific Islands, pp.96-115. Blackwell.Veth, P. and J.J. McDONALD 2002 Can archaeology be used to address the principles of exclusive possession in Native Title? In R. Harrison and Williamson (eds), After Captain Cook: The Archaeology of the Recent Indigenous Past in Australia, pp.121-132. Sydney University Archaeological Methods Series 8. Sydney: Archaeological Computing Laboratory, University of Sydney.
Rock art recording
Computer and statistical analyses and mapping
Photography
Sydney Basin archaeology
Social Profiles
http://uwa.edu.au/rock-art