Anthony McNicoll did his highly praised PhD thesis at Oxford University on “Hellenistic Fortifications from the Aegean to the Euphrates”.991 He became Senior Lecturer in Near Eastern Archaeology at Sydney University, Australia before his untimely death from cancer in 1985.

He delivered a series of outstanding courses while co-directing with Prof. J. Basil Hennessy, the University of Sydney's excavations, first at Teleilat Ghassul and later at the major site of Pella in Jordan. After his death the Anthony McNicoll Visiting Lectureship was established to bring to Australia internationally recognized scholars of archaeology.