Biographical note:

Lucy completed her BSc and BA (Hons) at the University of Auckland. Her Honours research focused on the identification of palaeotsunami deposits in archaeological legacy data in Central East Polynesia. After graduating, Lucy gained experience working as a contract archaeologist in the Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa New Zealand, working mostly on early Māori horticultural and settlement sites. In 2023, Lucy moved to Australia to start a CABAH PhD project at the Nguma-bada campus of James Cook University in Cairns. This project aims to develop a geospatial database of stone-walled fish traps in the South Wellesley Island group in the Gulf of Carpentaria working in partnership with Traditional Owners and Wellesley Islands Rangers to develop a best practice methodology for the recording and maintenance of stone-walled fish traps.

Research topic:

Constructed Seascapes: Understanding Kaiadilt Fishtrap Construction, Use, Condition and Futures in the South Wellesley Islands, Gulf of Carpentaria

Research outline:

This research will examine stone-walled fish traps and draw on multidisciplinary datasets alongside high-resolution imagery and spatial information to study the functional nature of fish traps in the South Wellesley Islands, as well their construction, chronology, and vulnerability to sea level change. By recording stone-walled fish traps, it is possible to explore the dynamics of resource use through stone-walled fish traps on a Country scale, and island scale, and fish trap complex scale. With the datasets already available from the Wellesley Islands, the use of GIS software and other geospatial analyses will allow for the creation of maps that visualise the interaction of fish trap complexes at varying scales, variation spatially, and their relationship with intertidal geomorphology. The production of these datasets will also allow the development and testing of best practice methods for continuing recording and monitoring of fish traps on Country for the purpose of conservation and maintenance. This study will be undertaken in partnership with Wellesley Islands Traditional Owners  to understand the long-term use of the Wellesley Islands. Furthermore, the study of past marine resource exploitation can support present and future decisions regarding the sustainability of fisheries and the conservation and restoration of reefs and other marine ecosystems.

Supervisory Team:

• Distinguished Professor Sean Ulm
• Dr Ariana Lambrides
• Professor Ian McNiven
• Dr Damien O’Grady

Research Grants and Awards:

Postgraduate Research Stipend Scholarship tenable for a Higher Degree by Research (HDR) at James Cook University (JCU)

Publications:

Petchey, Fiona, Simon Bickler, Lucy Hughes, and Magdalena Bunbury. "The Aotearoa/New Zealand Radiocarbon Database Upgrade." In New Zealand Archaeological Association Conference, Dunedin New Zealand. 2022.