Lynne is from Yuin (Black Duck), Ngairigo (Highlands or Maneroo), Biripi (White Pointer Shark) Purfleet, Taree.

Lynne Thomas has worked in various positions that have involved looking after Country. Having worked at Umbarra Cultural Centre at Wallaga Lake, Lynne’s role has enabled a deeper love of the bush which re-enforces the knowledge of Country passed onto her from her father Guboo Ted Thomas, an Aboriginal Tribal Elder and mother Anne Wirrimah Thomas, a Taree Purfleet woman.

In 2018, Lynne was Cultural Consultant on the Bangarra production Dark Emu. Other achievements include gaining employment in the national parks where her passion for wildlife required engaging both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities in awareness of threatened species. Accomplishments were creating a bilingual language book for schools and communities adjacent to national parks areas, delivering programs, and monitoring to support potoroo and koala recovery.

Lynne has also worked in the Department of Education for many years helping develop Aboriginal perspectives into the school curriculum. Her achievements include developing an Aboriginal studies class in which students learned Dhurga and Dirinjan languages and songs and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and parents were invited to share Dreamtime stories.

When Lynne is not working, she loves to go caving and trekking up into the mountains and retracing old Dreaming tracks or memory lines that were a part of the Aboriginal tracks of long ago. Lynne also enjoys painting and has created many artworks and many national park interpretation signs for people to understand the importance of landscape through Aboriginal perspectives, and the life it gives us and its species.

Lynne is currently working on illustrations for Dreamtime stories she has gathered over the years of listening to her old and wise Elders as well as tracking animal tracks that tell stories of their travels.

Lynne understands that implementing language is important to our past, present, and future.