Australian Archaeology: Pioneers and Traditions

Introduction

Australia’s first archaeological observations were made by early explorers and colonists or noted by observers primarily working in other disciplines (Smith & Burke 2007: 1). The first excavation in Australia was undertaken by the governors of the Colony of New South Wales with a focus on human burials (Horton 1991: 3-5), while the first to employ the method of stratigraphic analysis were anthropologists Herbert Hale and Norman Tindale, who undertook archaeological excavations at Devon Downs in 1929 (Hale & Tindale 1930).

Formal archaeological work in Australia began in the 1950s when John Mulvaney returned from courses at Cambridge University and introduced archaeological study into the Australian curriculum (Mulvaney 2011). Mulvaney began work on a number of archaeological excavations around Australia and instructed and mentored a number of students who would become leaders in the field, including Isabel McBryde, Jim Allen, and Ian Glover.

In the 1970s, a series of...