Graeme Lloyd Pretty was educated through Sydney University and graduated BA (Hons) majoring in History and Archaeology (1960) and a postgraduate Diploma in Education (1961). It was during these years of study that Graeme would be influenced by the work and approaches of Sandor Gallus and Norman B Tindale.

After the completion of his studies and exposure to work on sites such as the Koonalda Caves and the Nullarbor Plains, Graeme would be appointed Assistant Curator of Anthropology in 1962 at the age of just 22, under the supervision on NB Tindale, and would remain in this roll until 1965. In this time would be involved in a range of sites including 'archaeological and ethnographic collections from Australia, the Pacific, Africa and the Americas as well as sites such as Fromm’s Landing (Mulvaney et al. 1964) and Durras North Rockshelter (Lampert 1966) and conducted rescue excavations throughout South Australia and in Arnhem Land.'

From 1965 to 1973 Graeme was appointed Curator of Archaeology and visited and worked on archaeology sites overseas in South East Asia, the United Kingdom and Europe. Graeme would supervise the excavation of Anglo-Saxon town levels at Wallingford Castle, Berkshire, England (Pretty 1967) in association with Dr Nicholas on a large scale excavation. In these years he would also serve as Specialist Adviser in Ethnic Art of the Pacific Basin, Commonwealth Art Advisory Board, a Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, developing into an independent field collecting program based upon the dispatch of professional indigenous art researchers to key indigenous art provinces of the Pacific.

From 1973 to 1985 Graeme would be promoted to Senior Curator, Human Science Collections and Senior Curator of Archaeology from 1985 to 1994. Graeme’s fierce interest in the Melanesia, in particular Papua New Guinea lead to his appointment as commissioner to review the function of the Papua New Guinea Museum and National Gallery in 1968 during which he prepared a report and inventory of cave paintings and associated archaeological sites known to exist at that time. In 1969, under the direction of Graeme, the first South Australian Museum collecting expedition to PNG and contributed to the largest ethnographic salvage programme depositing over 1000 artefacts to the Papua New Guinea Museum with a similar expedition was carried out in 1970, with visits to the New Hebrides (Vanuatu), Solomon Islands and PNG. Graeme’s enthusiasm for Papua New Guinea would greatly contribute to inter museum relations between PNG and the South Australian Museum, resulting in a large collection of Foreign Ethnography within the SA Museum.

Perhaps the most important of Graeme’s research pursuits lies in the his work carried out during the excavations at the Aboriginal site of Roonka on the lower Murray River of south eastern South Australia between the years 1968 and 1977. Graeme’s successes here were aided by his close association with local South Australian Indigenous communities and his desire to involved Aboriginal elders and community members in all stages of research projects addressing past Indigenous cultures and lifeways. His long dedication to work and research on this site would lead to one of the largest well provenance prehistoric Aboriginal skeletal populations in Australia (Pretty 1970b, 1971b, 1975a, 1977, 1986).

With the help of an army of volunteers, including Vern and Helen Tolcher, Loyd and Joy Chilman, Richard Ward, John Prescott, Colin Cook, Miroslav Prokopec, John and Maureen Hodges and many others, Graeme would meticulously 'unearth and record a wealth of archaeological material and information from a site which proved to have been occupied for some 18, 000 years and would draw worldwide interest'. Graeme and his team’s dedication to record every inch of the findings at the Roonka site produced an incredibly comprehensive and complete written and photographic history of the site and indeed surrounding areas. The documents currently contained in the Roonka collection includes correspondence, diaries, large scale archaeological plans, maps, photographs and reports. Unfortunately Graeme was never truly happy with his final reports on the Roonka excavation and failed to publish his work and release it to the wider community before his death.

Graeme would resign in 1994 from the South Australia Museum after 32 years of service. From 1994 until his death in 2000, Graeme would continue his research as a Research Associate at the South Australian Museum and a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Anatomical Sciences, University of Adelaide.

In his desire to understand and become familiar with overseas collections, museum practice and research methods and trends, Graeme would leave behind a legacy of cooperation between national and international museum communities in developing cross-institutional partnerships and collaboration in the development of the South Australian Museum collections. Through his teaching career would be short lived Graeme would also contribute to the foundation of Archaeological programme in South Australia and implement collaborative changes to teaching method and learning environments within Archaeology departments of Adelaide and Flinders Universities pushing to involve other archaeological professionals in the wider community and would maintain a small teaching roll throughout his career.