The Peninsula's first people
The first people to camp on the shores of what is now known as Broken Bay and fish off the rocks at Pearl Beach were Guringai (Kuring-gai) whose lands covered the coastal area from the northern shore of Port Jackson to about the southern end of Lake Macquarie.
They had access to bountiful supplies of fish, oysters and other shellfish, supplemented by occasional possums, birds, small mammals and reptiles.
Their hunting equipment consisted of spears, single tipped or multi-pronged made using fish teeth or bones, also spear throwers.
They fashioned fishhooks from shells and carried these and their fishing lines in woven bags.
It is likely that they also used light canoes equipped with small fires on mud or clay hearths for cooking their fish as soon as it was caught.
And there were clubs, stones axes, and boomerangs for hunting on land.
In the bush there were edible plans, the soft ends of the leaves and the nectar rich flowers of the grass tree (xanthorrhoea), the fruits of the macrozamia (burrowang) roasted, pounded and left to soak thus leaching out the poison they contained, cabbage palms, fern roots, wild figs, limes, lillypillies, and masses of native spinach (tetragonia tetragonioides) growing in the dunes and on the cliffs.
The sandstone eroded conveniently into shelters and caves - gibber gunyahs - and there were good flat rock surfaces for artwork or ceremonies such as the bora ground with its rock carvings near Patonga (meaning "oysters").
James Cook might have been describing the Guringai when he wrote in 1770 of the Aboriginal People on the east coast that, "they are far more happier than we...The earth and sea of their own accord furnishes them with all things necessary for life, they covet not Magnificent Houses, Household-stuff etc., they live in a warm and fine climate and enjoy a very wholesome air, so that they have very little need of clothing."
Though it is very unlikely that many of the Guringai living on the shores of Broken Bay often made the trip, there were occasional meetings with the neighboring Darkingung in the west beyond what we now know as Mangrove Mountain to exchange goods and ceremonies.
It seems probably, for example, that the fish bones and teeth that were plentiful by the water were in demand for spear tips beyond the ranges.
After the settlement at Port Jackson, gifts of beads, clothing and other items certainly were carried north and seen among Brisbane Water people.
The Guringai people around Brisbane Water were among the first outside the immediate vicinity of Sydney to encounter the white people.
A few weeks after moving the settlement from Botany Bay to Port Jackson, captain Arthur Phillip sailed north with a small party of officers and marines to examine the coastline.
They sailed into Broken Bay, on March 2 and spent the night in the boats, anchored, probably in the lee of Green Point, because the natives "tho very friendly appeared to be numerous".
The next day they negotiated the rip and came ashore at Ettalong where they also encountered a large group of Aborigines.
They camped that night on an island, possibly St Hubert's or Riley's.
The next day they explored Cockle Creek.
A memorial stone erected on the reserve at Pearl Beach in 1988 commemorates this visit.
During the 50 years or so after 1788, white settlers slowly made their way on to the land around Broken Bay and Brisbane Water, but it was rough and wild country.
The Aboriginal population, never large, declined quickly and by 1848 there were said to be only 50 left in the Brisbane Water area.
However, some had certainly simply faded into the landscape, co-habiting with run-away convicts and timer getters.
Some settlers like James Webb, who took up the land where Woy Woy now stands, acquired an Aboriginal wife.
A daughter Charlotte was born about 1828 to Webb and a Guringai woman known as Sophy Webb.
By the end of the 19th century those who were still around has effectively disguised themselves in large mixed families like Webb's, mostly surviving now as labourers or servants, itinerant or unnoticed.
So it is probably that there were Guringai descendents among the timber getters and herdsman working for Rock Davis in the valley that later became Pearl Beach.
Book, 9 Dec 2009
Beverley Kingston, Pearl Beach and Progress