Mr Rapley said he had always had a passion for history and artefacts.
‘Even as a chef, I had an interest in old recipes and the way people used to eat,’ he said.
Inspired by Apicius, the oldest known Roman cookbook, Mr Rapley opened a restaurant of the same name in Fremantle in 1993.
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READ NOW‘Cooking is very much for young men; when you hit 30 you are overrun by young up- and-coming 20-year-olds, and rather than go into management, I decided to follow my other passion in archaeology,’ he said.
‘What I most enjoy about archaeology is the excitement of discovery and working with indigenous people and learning about their history from them.’