Why Scarp
Scarp are regarded as one of the premier providers of archaeological services in Australia. We know that having the right team to managing your heritage needs is essential when it comes to all the other aspects of your project – and ultimately to finishing on time and within budget. We have many years of hands-on experience working on some of the largest projects in Australia.
Scarp has a proven track record of providing our clients with efficient and effective solutions undertaken in collaboration with Indigenous stakeholders. We get the job done QUICKER, and BETTER than the competition.
Experienced Professionals
Our team consists of experienced professional archaeologists. Through great teamwork and collaboration with our clients and Indigenous representative organisations we deliver consistent, quality services that exceed our client’s and traditional owner expectations. Our team includes recognised leaders in archaeology, research and specialist sciences and we pride ourselves on our achievement of 20% indigenous employment.
The team at Scarp Archaeology consists of senior Australian Archaeologists all of whom work routinely in the field, junior archaeologists, and Aboriginal field assistants. Our senior team are all recognized as specialists in Aboriginal archaeology, trained in specific fields directly related to the work we do including lithic analysis, taphonomy, vertebrate, shell and other material analysis, community consultation, and even in optically stimulated luminescence dating! We lead all fieldwork, and you wont find a project where one of the principal archaeologists isn’t leading from inception, to running the fieldwork in the field, to writing the report.
In addition to the senior team Scarp features only the best graduates as our support archaeologists. These guys all have backgrounds from Australian archaeology departments, lithic specialisations, and have extensive fieldwork experience.
In addition we are developing a skills training programme in collaboration with CABAH and AAA for Indigenous staff. The senior team at Scarp are driven to replace ourselves with Indigenous people doing their own archaeology. A first step towards this has been the successful achievement of a 20% Indigenous employment on projects for BHP. Over coming years we will be assisting Indigenous staff to train more in archaeology, and get involved in the Scarp team.
The Director – Associate Professor Michael Slack
Michael Slack is the principle archaeologist and Director at Scarp. He completed his undergraduate education at UNSW, a masters degree at ANU and his doctorate at the University of Sydney. Before finishing his PhD he was in the field with his supervisor Dr Richard Fullagar establishing Scarp Archaeology in the Pilbara. Since then he has run Scarp from the front, being involved in most of the field projects the company has completed. Michael has excavated over 200 sites in Australia; recognized as a leading field archaeologist in the country, and is the author of hundreds of reports, a dozen academic papers, and presentations at both national and international conferences. Michael is Partner Investigator at the new Australian Research Centre funded Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, adjunct Associate Professor at James Cook University, and honorary senior research fellow at the University of Western Australia. Michael is also currently the Vice-President of the Australian Archaeological Association; the peak representative body for archaeologists in Australia .
