Headland 2007

On this continent there are many points of invasion. Yet the place that has become the symbolic site is the place that the traditional owners called Gamay, and which Captain Cook re-named Botany Bay. It was here that the mari nuwi, the big canoes, arrived in 1770 and again in 1788.  It was here that the barawalgal appeared from the clouds, like aliens from another planet. Some of the local people thought they were mani, ghosts.

Having chosen this bay of all bays in the whole landmass as their point of entry, the newcomers developed a paranoia about it. This was where others might come, and displace them. As early as the Crimean War, underground fortifications were built on the northern headland, and in the Second World War this was the location of the main coastal defences for the area.

Here in the bush where Sir Joseph Banks collected his specimens, the dome-shaped structures of derelict gun-batteries and observation rooms sit like the skulls of some alien mega-species. Inside these crania, black camouflage paint has been scraped back to the bone by generations of graffiti-artists.  In their imagery of sharks, shells, jellyfish, harpoons, muskets, spears, and the recurring symbol of the Aboriginal flag, there is a haunting sense of history.