A Brief History of Phillip Bay
Leeanne and I, Greg, live in a quiet suburban community in Sydney, Australia, called Phillip Bay located near the northern headland of Sydney’s famous Botany Bay Botany Bay. Phillip Bay gets it’s name from Captain Arthur Phillip who arrived in Botany Bay on January 18, 1788, aboard the First Fleet ship HMS Supply. Phillip was the Governor-designate of New South Wales, the proposed British penal colony on the east coast of Australia. Unfortunately, examination of the immediate vicinity by Phillip concluded the area 'unsuitable for habitation' so they sailed north, a few days later, landing at Sydney Cove, in Port Jackson, to establish the colony on January 26.
Indigenous Australian history in the area dates back tens of thousands of years. The local people at the time of colonisation were the Gadigal of the Dharug language group. European settlement led to the deaths of many Gadigal via introduced diseases or in conflict with settlers. The surviving Gadigal left the area or were pushed to the fringes of settlement. By the mid-nineteenth century, the original tribal groupings had been effectively destroyed. Their presence was recorded by Arthur Phillip and the French expedition, led by Jean de La Pérouse, who arrived at Botany Bay on 26 January 1788, just as the First Fleet was being relocated.
So there is quite a bit of history in our wider area that has been used for developments that were seen to be unwelcome closer to Sydney such as a leper colony, a major hospital, a jail, a sewerage treatment works, petrochemical plants, a coal fired power station, Australia's largest container terminal and port, to name just a few.