Lynley Wallis facts for kids

Lynley A. Wallis is an Australian archaeologist who studies the past. She is a professor at Griffith University. She is an expert in figuring out what past environments were like by studying tiny plant fossils called phytoliths.

Learning About the Past

Lynley Wallis earned her highest university degree, a PhD, from the Australian National University (ANU). Her special research project, called a PhD thesis, was about Phytoliths, Late Quaternary Environment and Archaeology in Tropical Semi-arid Northwest Australia. In this work, she showed how studying phytoliths can help us understand past environments in dry, tropical parts of Australia. She also created the first detailed record of plants that lived in northwest Australia during the late Quaternary period, which is a long time ago!

Her Career Journey

Lynley Wallis has worked in many different areas. She has helped manage important historical and cultural sites, taught at universities, and done research. Her work includes studying both ancient Indigenous cultures and more recent historical sites.

She taught at James Cook University from 2001 to 2002. Then, she taught at Flinders University for five years (2005–2009). From 2009 to 2011, Professor Wallis was a senior researcher at the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre (AERC) at the University of Queensland. Later, from 2016 to 2020, she was a senior researcher at the Nulungu Research Institute at University of Notre Dame. In 2020, she moved to Griffith University in Brisbane to continue her research.

Between her university jobs, Wallis worked for the government. She was a senior conservation officer for the Heritage Unit, Environment ACT (2002–2004). After that, she was a senior research officer at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (2004–2005). In 2011, she started her own company, Wallis Heritage Consulting. This company helps governments and other groups manage cultural heritage and work with Indigenous communities.

What She Researches

Lynley Wallis is very interested in how people and their environments have interacted over a very long time, especially during the late Quaternary period. She also studies coastal and island archaeology, which is finding out about past life on coasts and islands. Her main skills are using phytolith analysis to reconstruct past environments and doing fieldwork in remote areas. She also cares a lot about Indigenous archaeology, which involves working with local communities.

She has worked on projects all over Australia, including Western Australia (WA), South Australia (SA), the Northern Territory (NT), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), and Queensland (QLD). She also has international experience, having worked in Chile, Vietnam, and Thailand.

She has been part of many projects funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC). She has received more than 40 research grants throughout her career.

Awards and Special Recognition

Lynley Wallis has been the President of two important groups for archaeologists in Australia: the Australian Archaeological Association and the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists.

In 2012, she was given a special "life membership" award for all her great work and contributions to the Australian Archaeological Association.

Her Publications

Lynley Wallis has written and contributed to many important research papers and books. These publications share her discoveries and knowledge with other scientists and the public.