Jillian Garvey

Dr Jillian Maree Garvey is an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (ARC DECRA) Fellowin Archaeology, specialising in late Quaternary Australian Indigenous Archaeology, at La Trobe University, Melbourne (Bundoora). As an adjunct to her research, Dr Jillian Garvey teaches undergraduate courses and supervises Honours and Higher Degree in Research (HDR) level, including Archaeology Field School, at La Trobe University. Dr Jillian Garvey is a Registered Cultural Heritage Advisor (CHA) with the Office of Aboriginal Affairs Victoria (OAAV) and a current member of the Australian Archaeological Association (AAA); International Council for Archaeozoology (ICAZ); Australasian Quaternary Association (AQUA) and The Royal Society of Victoria (RSV). Her research interests include Australian Aboriginal Archaeology, Experimental Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Late Pleistocene and Holocene Palaeoecology and Zooarchaeologyand she is a specialist in the taphonomic identification of animal bones (native and introduced species) and invertebrate fauna.

In 1999, Garvey completed a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science (Hons) with a joint thesis between the Departments of Archaeology and Zoology at La Trobe University. The focus of her thesis was in identifying the fossilized history of a late Holocene assemblage of small mammals in Tasmania. This project involved studying the dietary selectivity of predators and "included the role in which Strigiformes (owls) play in the accumulation of small animals in these faunal assemblages". "Experimental feeding trials of the three owl taxa known to currently inhabit Tasmania" were conducted as part of the research in the investigation of regurgitated owl-pellets in determining the source of small animal bones. In 2005, her PhD in Palaeontology"investigated the vertebrate taphonomy, palaeoecology and the depositional environment of an Early Carboniferous (Tournaisian) fossil fish locality, Fish Hill, in the Home Station Member of the Snowy Plains Formation, Mansfield Basin, Australia. This project combined research on the vertebrate fish assemblage, micro vertebrates, ichnology, taphonomy and geology of the locality to develop an overall understanding of the palaeoecology and palaeocommunity". Research from her thesis contributed to increase knowledge on new fish species from the Early Carboniferous in the Mansfield Basin locality.

Garvey has published on Indigenous Australian Archaeology with an extensive list of academic publicationsand Research projectsin Australia in which she has been involved. She has worked on late Quaternary assemblages within South-west Tasmania, Lake Mungo in New South Wales (NSW), Cuddie Springs in New South Wales (NSW), and Murray River in north-west Victoria. She has also contributed her scientific knowledge to numerous book publications as an editor, reviewer and authorand has over 30 published Conference papers nationally and internationally including Society of American Archaeology, International Conference for Zooarchaeology, Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology, Australian Archaeological Association Conference and Conference on Australian Vertebrate Evolution Palaeontology and Systematics (CAVEPS).

Ongoing research into the possible causes relating to the extinction of Australia's megafauna during the late Pleistocene era have uncovered that megafauna and Indigenous humans co-existed in the same environment, inclusive of these two sites; Cuddie Springs in NSW and Nombe Rockshelter in the Papua New Guinea (PNG) highlands. Bones from megafauna and stone tool artefacts from human inhabitants have been found at these sites in association with each other. The cause of Indigenous Australian megafauna loss has been attributed to human-driven extinction (HDE) by numerous researchers, however, Garvey and her colleagues in dating faunal assemblages estimated 69% of total faunal species extinctions lie outside the known time for human colonization. Fauna may be identified from teeth, bone, hair, fur, shell, and are important in describing the palaeoenvironment and how Indigenous humans selected, killed and prepared these fauna as a nutritional food source in ancient times which has been a focus of Dr Garvey's research. To obtain a greater understanding of Indigenous Australian aboriginal hunting and butchery practices, collection of evidence from the ethnographic record and modern animal anatomical experiments are conducted including fatty acid analyses involving Bennett's Wallaby, kangaroo, wombatand emuas an analogue to ancient fauna. Research on freshwater shell middens left in the archaeological record by Indigenous human occupants along the River Murray in Northwest Victoria (Ned's Corner pastoral station)has also been undertaken by Garvey.

During November 2016, Garvey and colleagueshave been involved in an archaeological dig at the Lancefield megafauna excavation site in central Victoria, Australia where the discovery of teeth from the extinct giant marsupial Diprotodon, a rhinocerous-sized wombat, have been unearthed from the ancient swamplands, together with remains of Macropus Titan, an extinct giant kangaroo, and aboriginal artefacts. The findings from the excavation site may hold important information on the extinction of megafauna in the region.

Garvey has recently been awarded the ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship Mentoring Scheme (2016)at the University of Melbourne. This Fellowship is awarded to those who have completed a PhD in the last 10 years within Humanities and Social Sciences. The focus of this intensive mentoring programme is in improving and supporting leadership capabilities in early career female researchers, and best practice guidelines in research activities.

Garvey has been awarded over $875,000 in Research funding for project work from 2004 to present (mid-2016). Grants and Awards have been presented to Dr Garvey from the Australian Research Council (ARC), Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE), Kimberley Foundation, La Trobe University (LTU) Research Transforming Human Societies and International Council for Archaeozoology and Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS).

Garvey has spoken publicly about her research which has been reported as newspaper articles, video and radio interviews.

• 2016 Archaeologists discover teeth of a rhinoceros-sized WOMBAT during dig in an Australian swamp. Daily Mail, Australia. Ashleigh Davis. 25 November.
• 2016 Teeth of Diprotodon, rhinoceros-sized wombat, found in dig at Lancefield Swamp. ABC news Online. Joanna Crothers. 24 November.
• 2016 Lancefield Megafauna Dig interview on ABC Radio. Red Symons. 22 November. (https://clyp.it/iyq14vs1)
• 2016 Radio interview with ABC 720 Perth, Drive Program with Jane Marwick, 7 July.
• 2015 Radio interview with ABC Mildura-Swan Hill, 19 November.
• 2015 Radio interview with Richards Stubbs ABC 774 Melbourne, 19 March.
• 2015 Radio interview with Gillian O'Shaughnessy on ABC 720 Perth, 19 March.
• 2015 Another roadside attraction: how Jillian Garvey's road-kill study reveals ancient Aboriginal practices. The Sunday Age. 15 March.
• 2015 Plea to save ancient sites. The Mercury. 14 March.
• 2014 Eighteen page feature article by the German edition of Geomagazine on the Simpson Desert Palaeontology Expedition
• 2014 Interview with Geomagazine on the Simpson Desert Palaeontology Expedition
• 2014 The Australian paleo diet: 40,000 years in the making La Trobe University Big FAT Ideas
• 2014 Neds Corner dig discovery offers diet clues. Sunraysia Daily. 17 June.
• 2014 Major Archaeological Project Underway. La Trobe University. 27 March.
• 2014 Big Dig at Ned's Corner StationAudio of interview for "Midden mysteries revealed". ABC News. Brett Worthington. 6 February.
• 2014 Researchers joining forces to study indigenous history (image). ABC News. 31 January.
• 2014 Researchers unlocking indigenous history (image). ABC News. 31 January.
• 2014 Shells offering an insight into the past(image). ABC News. 31 January.
• 2014 Dig reveals ancient life. Sunraysia Daily. 18 January.
• 2013 Digging deep into history. Sunraysia Daily. Graeme O'Neill. 28 December.
• 2007 Ancient bon ton in South Siberia. Sydney Morning Herald. 2 June.
• 2006 Cave reveals Indigenous ice age lifestyle secrets. ABC News. 11 March.
• 2004 Archaeologists gain new insights into Aboriginal land use. ABC PM. Annie Guest. 13 December.

• Snowy Plains Formation Stratigraphic Unit description
• ARC Kathleen Fitzpatrick Laureate Fellowship Mentoring Scheme
• Australian Research Council (ARC)
• Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE)
• Kimberley Foundation
• La Trobe University (LTU) Research Transforming Human Societies
• International Council for Archaeozoology and Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS)
• Mountain, Mary-Jane, "Highland New Guinea Hunter-Gatherers: the evidence of Nombe Rockshelter, Simbu with Emphasis on the Pleistocene", PhD thesis, Australian National University, July 1991