Botany Bay BB4 Archaeological Site, New South Wales: NP1059

In the late 1960s Vincent Megaw, now Emeritus Professor at Flinders University in Adelaide, excavated the Aboriginal site at Captain Cook’s Landing Place. The site includes an extensive midden, containing large amounts of shell and fish-bone. Sydney cockle, turban shells, mussels and oysters, as well as bones of snapper and bream indicate the meals of the Gweagal and their ancestors. There are also remnants, in smaller quantities, of seals, dolphins, whales, sea-birds, and some mammals. The site is prominent for the large quantity of complete and partially-finished fish hooks made from various sea shells as well as numerous bone spear barbs that were used for the prongs of fishing spears.