Laila Haglund is an archaeologist who played a key role in establishing consulting archaeology in Australia, and in drafting Queensland's first legislation to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage.
Observations of Aboriginal lithic scatters in the Bathurst area lead to her switching focus of study to prehistory and conservation at the University of London.
[1][2] In 1965 Haglund (the only archaeologist in the state at the time[1]) was asked by the University of Queensland to conduct salvage excavations on the Gold Coast at the Broadbeach Aboriginal burial ground.
Six seasons of excavations were undertaken between April 1965 and August 1968, recovering skeletal remains of over 150 Aboriginal people[3] of the Kombumerri clan.
[6] Following the excavation, the human remains were returned to the local Aboriginal Community and subsequently reburied in 1988,[3] one of the key examples of repatriation in Australia.