JIM WHEELER
Director, chief technical officer
“It is a great privilege to work on Country and undertake research in partnership with Traditional Owners and Knowledge Holders. I love taking a multi-disciplinary approach to heritage research, with the scope to engage analytically and creatively – I think we are at our very best when we are drawing on cutting-edge scientific analysis and combining that knowledge with a deep understanding of the social values of places to communities.”
Jim is a senior cultural heritage advisor, archaeologist, and manager with diverse experience in cultural heritage management, strategic planning, heritage policy, stakeholder consultation, interpretation, and heritage assessment projects. He has worked extensively on public sector, commercial, and academic archaeology projects in Australia and internationally.
One of the founders of Extent Heritage, Jim leads an experienced team of heritage professionals producing innovative, high-quality heritage work that provides certainty and value for money for development proponents and aims to set industry benchmarks for excellence. He has published peer-reviewed journal articles and presented conference papers on the archaeology of submerged terrestrial sites, non-site landscape archaeology, and heritage policy.
Jim has been a member of the Aboriginal Affairs Victoria Technical Advisory Group (TAG) and is currently a full member of the Australian Association of Consulting Archaeologists Inc (AACAI). In 2010 he was awarded the Laila Haglund Prize for Excellence in Consulting Archaeology. As the executive director of Extent Heritage, he is responsible for quality assurance and on-time provision of advice, services, and other deliverables to clients. Jim is overseeing a number of groundbreaking initiatives for the company in cultural values assessment, research partnerships, strategic assessment, heritage interpretation, and virtual education.