Meet the team: Olivier Rochecouste, Heritage Consultant
May 22, 2025
News & Insights
Why did you choose your particular career?
I loved reading about human history since I was a kid (especially Tintin and Asterix & Obelix comics) through studying history in my high school years. It wasn’t until later that I found out you can do archaeology as a career (and I hadn’t watched Indiana Jones yet!). From there I studied archaeology during my university years, which allowed me to work on excavations and heritage projects in Egypt, Cambodia and Australia.
Olivier Rochecouste
What has your career journey at Niche been like?
I started at Niche with just minimal consulting experience and mostly a background from academia. Since then, it has felt like a growing trajectory as I have gotten more familiar with heritage consulting work, by picking the brains of our Senior Heritage team members, conducting fieldwork projects around NSW, while also supplying our clients with high quality heritage assessments that support positive heritage management outcomes for their projects.
What has been your biggest achievement at Niche?
I was fortunate to collaborate with local Aboriginal community members and conduct an artefact reburial for thousands of artefacts. These artefacts were initially excavated as part of a development project in Sydney and needed to be re-buried in an area where they will not be disturbed. To help coordinate this effort and see how much it meant to the local Aboriginal community was a true highlight for me.
What do you love most about working at Niche?
I love working within our heritage team. This is a special group of people with extraordinary skills, experience and personalities. I am very fortunate to be working with them and learning from all of them.
When you’re not at work, what do you like to do with your time?
Spending time with my wife and family, they mean the world to me. I enjoy gym/fitness activities, which help me to maintain my physical and mental health. I am a big sports fan as well, either live or watching on TV.
How does Niche help you structure work around your life?
Niche provides great flexibility with their work from home policy; it allows me to be able to structure my work life balance well between work and my family life.
Why does your work at Niche have an impact?
Working at Niche gives me the great opportunity to work with Australian Indigenous groups. I love working with them within our projects, whose stories and knowledge are vital for our heritage projects out on Country. To have that opportunity to advocate for heritage management outcomes that benefit and conserve one of the oldest and continuous living cultures in the world is an absolute privilege.
Most archaeologists would kill to be learning from people from past cultures who are no longer living in this world.
