Regional archaeologist

Rachel Darmody says you need to be fit to work on excavations. Picture / Alan Gibson

Name: Dr Rachel Darmody
Age: 33
Job title: regional archaeologist
Working hours: varied, including weekends and evenings
Employer: Historic Places Trust, Department of Conservation, universities, museums, regional councils, private consultancy
Pay: $45,000 a year rising with experience
Qualifications needed: Master's or PhD in archaeology
Career prospects: high demand for archaeologists in both public and private sectors

Describe your job.

I work for the NZ Historic Places Trust as a regional archaeologist responsible for administering the archaeology provisions of the Historic Places Act. I cover Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Taupo and Gisborne.

All historic sites are protected but the Act provides a process for modifying sites. We call them authorities but it's like a permit. We spend a lot of time processing these authorities. There will be a development proposal, maybe a large subdivision, and the developer will get an archaeological survey by a consultant. It might identify that a number of sites will be affected. They will then apply for their resource consent and their archaeological authority.

The trust will assess the application, look at what sites they want to destroy, whether they can be destroyed and if they are to be destroyed what conditions will be set for investigating the site.

If the authority is granted then the consultant archaeologist would carry out the conditions. If it's declined more often than not we end up in the Environment Court defending our decision. On some of the bigger applications we'll have site meetings with the developers before they put the authority in and meetings with their archaeologist before preparing the conditions. Then it's sent to our senior archaeologist in Wellington for it be checked. If the authority is granted my job involves checking the compliance.

There's lots of travel. We work with councils because they control development and also do a lot of earth moving. Councils also manage a lot of archaeology sites.

Why did you choose the job?

I liked the combination of science and history so I ended up doing anthropology and just continued with archaeology. The Historic Places Act is about preservation of our heritage - about protecting things - so you hope that you will be making a bit of a difference.

Why is the job important?

Because New Zealand has such a rich history, we've got amazing archaeological sites and we have to manage our archaeological resources better. Once they are gone they are gone forever. Site management and protection are key.

If we can't preserve a site then at least we can preserve the information through excavation but we are not treasure-hunting. We shouldn't just see the value of archaeology in terms of the potential to excavate. We should be seeing it as about preserving and conserving sites; so part of the job is talking to landowners and looking at how they are managing sites.

What's the best part of the job?

The variety. I quite like never knowing what you are going to do. And you get to see some amazing sites and landscapes. It's really cool using the scientific method and history and interpretation to reconstruct people's past life.

The most difficult part is dealing with people's misconceptions of what archaeology is and what it isn't. We don't dig up dinosaurs and we are not looking for gold. We don't want to make life difficult for landowners and developers. We want to work with them to get positive outcomes. It's all about treating people's ancestors and history with respect.

What are your strengths?

You have to have common sense and be fairly thick-skinned because you deal with some tough situations and all sorts of people. You also have to be fit because of some of the places you end up going.

What's been some of the more interesting projects?

There's a quarry in Otorohanga where they found a waka. We excavated around it and organised to remove it with a huge crane. Now it's sitting outside the Otorohanga Museum.

What's your job-hunting advice?

Get a degree and volunteer to get the experience, show initiative and just do it. Get on a few excavations. Join the NZ Archaeological Association and go to the conferences.