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.
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“It is remarkable how closely the history of the apple tree is connected with that of man.”
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