Dr Lavelle was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in the recent 2009 Queen’s Birthday Honours list for her work helping preserve both colonial cemeteries and roads.

With three generations of family connections in the Mid-Mountains stretching back to Lawson in the 1930s, Siobhan has lived in the Woodford-Hazelbrook area since 1979.

A professional archaeologist, she is probably best known for her work recording convict-built road works affected by the Great Western Highway upgrading, including a series of massive stone retaining walls along the Woodford Bends in the early 1990s.

From 1994 to 2003 Dr Lavelle was also the archaeologist for the Heritage Council endorsed Convict Trail — a community based project which seeks to conserve the heritage of the Great North Road, built between Sydney and Newcastle from 1826 to 1836.

Dr Lavelle has also had a long interest in the care and conservation of historic and pioneer cemeteries. A member of the NSW National Trust’s Cemeteries Committee since 1985, Siobhan has spent many weekends recording historic burial grounds and assisting other volunteers such as cemetery ‘Friends’ groups with their restoration projects.