[2] Attenbrow commenced her archaeological studies in the Department of Anthropology at Sydney University where she obtained a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in 1976, and completed her PhD in 1987.
She has worked as a private consulting archaeologist and in the National Parks and Wildlife Service (New South Wales) as a cultural heritage officer.
[citation needed] Her research has focused on the Holocene period subsistence patterns, resource use and stone tool technology of Australian Aborigines, particularly in south-eastern Australia.
She has undertaken fieldwork in Upper Mangrove Creek near Wyong on the NSW central coast) and the Port Jackson catchment (the area around Sydney Harbour).
[1] In 2019, Attenbrow was awarded the Rhys Jones Medal, the highest award offered by the Australian Archaeological Association, in recognition of her outstanding and sustained contribution to the field of archaeology in Australia.