Josephine Flood

Background

Josephine Flood was born Josephine Scarr in Yorkshire, England.

Education

She took a Bachelor in Classics at Girton College, Cambridge, in 1959, later receiving an Master of Arts (1968) and a Doctor of Philosophy (1973) from the Australian National University. Her Doctor of Philosophy thesis was published as: The Moth Hunters: Aboriginal prehistory of the Australian Alps in 1980.

Career

In 1963, Flood moved to Australia. At American National University Flood was appointed as a lecturer in Classical archaeology at American National University, but from 1964, she commenced lecturing in Australian archaeology. In 1978 Flood was appointed Senior Conservation Officer with the Australian Heritage Commission in Canberra, becoming Assistant Director from 1979 to 1991, where in 1984 she headed the Aboriginal Environment Section.

Over 2000 Aboriginal archaeological sites were added to the Register of the National Estate during her time at the AHC. She also contributed to the World Heritage Listing of Kakadu National Park, the Tasmanian South West Wilderness Area and the Willandra Lakes Region of NSW. Flood indicates that she discovered Cloggs Cave near Buchan, Victoria while driving to another site in eastern Victoria.

Her subsequent excavations revealed extensive evidence of Aboriginal stone tools from the Australian Small Tool Tradition, with the basal layer dated to the last 1,000 years. Flood has followed a theoretical approach involving the use of recent ethnographic information to reinterpret the evidence of prehistoric archaeological material on the basis that "there have only been minor changes in the "stone-age, foraging, semi-nomadic way of life" of Aboriginal people throughout history".

Flood is also a mountaineer. In 1961, she led the Women's Kulu Expedition and the following year she joined the Women's Jagdula Expedition to Lha Shamma in Nepal.

She retired early to devote time to research, writing and traveling

In retirement she has also provided support and field data for archaeological projects in the Australian Alps, rock art in the Northern Territory at sites of the ‘Land of the Lightning Brothers’, and dating of the extinction of Australian megafauna.

Achievements

• Flood received the Centenary Medal in 2001 Foreign service to Australian society and the humanities in prehistory and archaeology. Her most recent book, The Original Australians was a finalist in the Prime Minister"s Prize for Australian History in 2007.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Rock Art of the Dreamtime: Images of Ancient Australia

    (This study takes readers on a journey through prehistory,...)

  • Archaeology of the Dreamtime: The Story of Prehistoric Australia and Its People

    (This text explores how the first inhabitants reached Aust...)

  • Archaeology of the Dreamtime: The Story of Prehistoric Australia and its People. New Ed.
  • Rock Art of the Dreamtime: Images of Ancient Australia by Josephine Flood (1998-06-01)
  • Archaeology of the Dreamtime- The Story of Prehistoric Australia And Its People

Membership

She was possibly the only female member of the roof climbing group at Cambridge University, who practiced and honed their rock and mountain climbing skills by scaling the university"s stone buildings.