Fred McCarthy (archaeologist)

Progressing in his career, he was promoted to the role of scientific cadet in 1932 and was assigned to assist William Walford Thorpe, the curator of anthropology.

Following Thorpe’s passing in September, Elsie Bramell assumed the position of scientific assistant in February 1933, briefly holding seniority over McCarthy until he was promoted to the same level the next year.

[5] Within 12 years of starting at the museum he rose to be Curator of Ethnology,[a] a position he held until 1964, when he was appointed foundational principal of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies.

[4]: 3 In the underfinanced years of the depression McCarthy undertook, together with a volunteer team he organized, to survey at his own expense, and in his free time, numerous prehistoric art galleries, recording and sketching their contents before urban sprawl destroyed extensive remains of Sydney's aboriginal heritage.

His work with Margaret McArthur at Oenpelli (present-day Gunbalanya) was to lead to a groundbreaking study on time factors in aboriginal women's quest for food.

His assiduous investigations resulted in the close description of some 43 totemic dancing events in two large volumes, and the collection of an important number of ornaments used in them.

Books include: At his death, he left, unpublished a 900-page manuscript entitled Artists of the sandstone, an ethnographical study of contact with whites in Sydney in 1788.