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.
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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.
At Artefact we believe that Aboriginal people are best placed to manage their own heritage, and that the current NSW Aboriginal heritage legislative system is inherently colonialist. It defines Aboriginal heritage in ways that do not match Aboriginal definitions of their own heritage, it does not genuinely consult Aboriginal people and it does not encourage conservation of Aboriginal culture. And finally, the current legislation does not adequately recognise and protect cultural, spiritual and intangible Aboriginal values.
The heritage framework encourages management of Aboriginal heritage assessments by people who hold university qualifications in archaeology, or have extensive experience in the field. In effect, the current heritage system locks almost all Aboriginal people out of heritage practice, and gives control of the industry to white archaeologists, or consultancy firms like ours. We make our living and profits from the heritage of Aboriginal people. This is not how things should be so Artefact is doing what we can to challenge this situation.
Ultimately, Artefact supports the development of new legislation that acknowledges the rights of First Nations people to the cultural ownership and determination of their heritage. In the meantime, we need to act appropriately, before such major changes to legislation might occur.
"The current legislation does not adequately recognise and protect cultural, spiritual and intangible Aboriginal values."
We recognise that in order to behave morally as a company and as individuals we need to do things differently, as far as we can within the current law. We need to hand back control of Aboriginal heritage to Aboriginal people as far as we can, even before the law hopefully changes.
Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officers
Artefact has therefore started creating positions and employing Aboriginal people as Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officers - ACHOs.
Our vision is that Aboriginal heritage management at Artefact should be primarily undertaken by First Nations people - ACHOs. They would have support from non-Aboriginal specialists only where this adds value to a project or where it is needed to train Aboriginal people to do the job themselves. Artefact sees its role in this to provide support to assist ACHOs in fulfilling these goals.
There are existing heritage assessments that the current system allows to be carried out by people who do not have archaeological qualifications. As a starting point, by training ACHOs to take over such tasks from non-Aboriginal archaeologists, and also by involving ACHOs in all aspects of other assessments such as fieldwork and reporting, they will gain the experience they need to eventually carry out a full scope of heritage assessments whether or not they have university degrees.
Beyond archaeological heritage management and reporting, a really valuable area of contribution by ACHOs is in the Connecting with Country framework. In this, to inform planning of often large developments, elders and people with connection to a particular location are asked to visit Country and talk about their connections to it and its values to them. The need for ACHOs in this process reflects a really simple realization - that Aboriginal culture is alive and well and permeates the thinking and lives of Aboriginal people. Therefore, if you want to consult and really deeply understand Aboriginal attitudes and values on anything, the best people to investigate this are Aboriginal people themselves. We’re not saying there is such a thing as universal Aboriginal culture and that all Aboriginal people automatically understand all such culture, but Artefact believe that it’s unlikely that a person is going to have anywhere near the inherent understanding of Aboriginal culture that a non-Aboriginal person is going to have.
This carries on beyond Connecting with Country, to consultation, into areas such as identifying and working with appropriate artists for heritage interpretation, assessing cultural values generally, and providing training such as cultural sensitivity training.
Image: Former Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officer Philip Obah on a site visit with Registered Aboriginal Parties.
A Unique Profession
So far the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officer Program has generally been a success and is constantly evolving as we learn and listen. At one stage we had four ACHOs, of which we have currently retained three. These are Kelly Barton, Kieran Murray and Cole Perry. Kelly is a proud Woolwonga, Wagiman, Wakka Wakka, Goreng Goreng woman, Kieran is a proud Kamilaroi man and Cole is a proud Biripi/Worimi man having grown up in Karuah on the NSW Mid North Coast.
Artefact recognises that heritage management is a unique profession that many people from the outside will not understand until they try it, and then it may not be for everyone. The lessons we have learned so far include the need to examine our own cultural sensitivity as individuals and as a company. We are also shaping our training and induction programs to help new ACHOs understand and step into their roles successfully, and we need to help ACHOs understand that what the current world of archaeology and legislation calls ‘culture’ is often very different to what many or most Aboriginal people call culture. All of these gaps between and industry understanding on the one hand, and Aboriginal values on the other are gaps where we have failed in the past and where we need to change in order to succeed in the future.
We are committed to making this project work and we seek help in identifying people who might be interested in a career as an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officer. That is, especially people with consultation and engagement skills, not necessarily skills or qualification in archaeology or heritage – although those would not hurt.
Image: Cole Perry is one of three Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officers at Artefact.
A Starting Point
There is a fair and critical conclusion that you could come to, and which you would be entitled to reach from what I have described so far. That is, that at the end of the day, Artefact will still be the employer and profit-making entity that gains benefit from having ACHOs working for us, and nothing really will have changed in our control of the means of production of Aboriginal heritage.
But, we don’t believe this is a fair reflection of the situation, because any ACHO is perfectly entitled to take the training that Artefact is offering, and then once they are qualified and empowered to function independently, they can move off on their own into individual practice or to work for Aboriginal or other organisations.
"Handing Aboriginal heritage back to its rightful owners."
In effect, the ACHO program is as much a paid training course that generates independence, as it is a work position.
Hopefully it is a starting point that will get people in the heritage industry thinking and questioning their practices. It is not a perfect starting point, but our hope is that eventually it will be a foundation for change, led by Aboriginal people.
We’re sure the program will bring more challenges and opportunities to learn. And we’re excited about the potential that this program has, to chip away at what has been wrong for so long, for new beginnings, and finally to start handing Aboriginal heritage back to its rightful owners.
Image: Michael Lever fielding questions with Sandra Wallace at the 2023 NSW Aboriginal Archaeology Future Forum at the Australian Museum.
Join the Team
If you know someone who might be interested in working with us as an Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Officer we’d love to hear more.
Image: A recent walk on Country session in St Mary's coordinated by Artefact's Kelly Barton.
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