Sites of Aboriginal significance around Kurnell

Middens, rock shelters, engravings and burial sites provide evidence that Botany Bay is an important area for Aboriginal heritage. As Gweagal elder Aunty Beryl Timbery-Beller says, “Those middens can tell a story… (a midden) is like walking into a library…” Les Bursill, a Dharawal historian, archaeologist, anthropologist, and publisher, points out that while evidence of Aboriginal occupation can be found all around Kurnell peninsula, much of it has been destroyed by sandmining and other industrial developments: “there are hundreds of middens out there. National Parks has commissioned digs. The digs were done well, but it was too late to save much.”

The following is a list of just some of the known significant Aboriginal historical sites on the Kurnell Peninsula:

• An archeological site at Potter Point is “the only remaining place on the shore of Botany Bay where material evidence for the study of prehistory is known to be available”
• In 1972 a burial area was uncovered at Kurnell village
• The rock shore in the park near Inscription Point (the landing place) extending around the sea shore to the east side of Boat Harbour contains a rock shelter and several areas of one large midden that were excavated by Megaw, and at Boat harbour are three very large middens. 
• On the high dunes above Potter Point there are no middens but there have been extensive stone working areas and numerous collections of stones indicating fireplaces. Large amounts of scattered stone relics have been found from the valley east of Potter Point but all the individual sites have been wrecked by earth-moving operations 
• The sand hills of Kurnell possess historical, cultural, scientific and natural significance as a place of early European contact with the Gweagal Aborigines. The sand hills have significant Aboriginal signs of habitation, from carvings, ceremonial sites, middens and sites of flaked sharpening stones. They are of significant interest to the Aboriginal community as many of the other hills and dunes that were inhabited by their ancestors have now disappeared. As the dunes move or drift, many of the sites once occupied by Aboriginal people have been covered and preserved. 
• Towra Point Nature Reserve contains three known sites of significance. Parts of Towra Point were used for food (seafood and waterfowls) and freshwater from the ponds. These ponds no longer contain freshwater due to greater waves impacting on the shore from the airport.

Sources

Anderson, D.J., The Botany Bay Project: A Handbook of the Botany Bay Region- some preliminary background papers, Australia, O'Grady and Sons Pty Ltd, p.46

Aunty Beryl Timbery-Beller, 2006, Plaque, Kurnell landing place wharf

Interview with Les Bursill (see http://kurnell.blogspot.com/2010/10/interview-with-les-bursill.html) 

National Parks and Wildlife Service 1998

Towra Point Nature Reserve, National Parks Journal-- biodiversity legislation http://www.wpsa.org.au/default2.asp?contentID=9