History
Bittangabee Bay has a known history for the indigenous people of the region, and significant early European settlement. .
Bittangabee Bay was known as 'Pertangerbee' by the original occupants of the area, the Thaua/Thawa/Thauaira people of the Yuin (Murring) nation, who have lived here for over 6,000 years. It was an important camp place and teaching ground, possibly a men's area, as Bundooro, one of the aboriginal names for Green Cape, was a teaching area for young men, and believed to be a men's area. Naa-chi (now Nadgee Nature Reserve), on the other side of Green Cape to Bittangabee Bay, is the resting-place of their Rainbow Serpent, the most important totem of most Australian aboriginal people.
The Aborigines retain strong traditional and spiritual links to the land, and people in the National Parks Service wish to maintain a collaborative relationship with Koori people, acknowledging their cultural beliefs and themselves adopting a philosophy of custodianship of this beautiful part of NSW.
The stone ruins at the bay date from 1844. In 1977, Kenneth McIntyre suggested the ruins were of Portuguese origin, and this romantic notion quickly established credence before it was ultimately proven incorrect by historian Michael Pearson.
Read more about this topic: Bittangabee Bay
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“Universal history is the history of a few metaphors.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“History is the present. That’s why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth.”
—E.L. (Edgar Lawrence)