This study was prepared as part of a lithic analysis for an archaeological testing project undertaken by the Australian Museum Business Services in 1996 at three Aboriginal sites encountered on Bettys Creek, near Singleton in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. The goal of the analysis was to determine the place of the Bettys Creek assemblage within Hunter Valley lithic technology, thereby providing information relevant to evaluating the significance of the Bettys Creek sites. The analytical approach of the Bettys Creek analysis involved applying a 'technological typology' to the lithic assemblages. In this approach, flakes are classified into types based on the knapping techniques which produced them (Andrefsky 1998: 118-122; Shott 1994). Formed objects -- artefacts from which flakes have been removed -- are examined scar-by-scar to determine the sequence and strategy of stone reduction (Andrefsky 1998: 136-188; Moore 1992). The results of the flake and formed tool studies are correlated through knapping experiments and artefact conjoining. A stage-based reduction model, often in the form of a flow chart, is used to structure the results. The intent is to develop a detailed model of the way in which stone was manipulated at a site or in a region. This approach has rarely been applied in Australia, although two published examples are available for the Hunter Valley: Flenniken and White (1985) and Hiscock (1993). The first step of the Bettys Creek analysis involved extrapolating a reduction model from these studies. The intent was to examine the nature and distribution of reduction steps at Bettys Creek in light of the reduction model. It quickly became apparent during the fieldwork that, while the reduction model derived from these studies reflected one method of microlith production, the model was too narrow in scope to account for all aspects of knapping behaviour practiced at Bettys Creek. A review was then undertaken of unpublished pre-1996 Hunter Valley lithic analyses in order to expand and refine the reduction model and provide a more holistic account of the Bettys Creek artefact assemblages. However, most pre-1996 Hunter Valley studies involved attribute analysis and this method yields results which are of limited use in developing lithic reduction models. Hence, the necessary technological information was not available in any single analysis. Nevertheless, as a group, these studies covered most aspects of Hunter Valley reduction technology. By extrapolating from information in the unpublished literature combined with analysis of the Bettys Creek assemblages and heat-treatment experiments, it was possible to broaden the scope of the initial model to include the range of manipulations stone went through prior to tool exhaustion and discard. This paper describes the reduction model.