Two beaches in Sydney’s southeast – Yarra Bay and Frenchmans Bay – have been protected for future generations, after the State Government’s Minister for Heritage, Penny Sharpe, this week announced they’ve been added to the NSW State Heritage Register.

“This is welcome news for the Randwick City community,” Mayor Veitch said.

“The heritage listing will protect and preserve this area, in recognition of the local Aboriginal community’s strong and unbroken connection to this Country and its significance in the history of our state.”

The coastal landscape of beaches, bays and foredunes contained within the Gooriwal Cultural Landscape has special significance to the local Aboriginal community. It is a place they have been able to continue cultural practices, such as gathering bush tucker and fishing.

“For Aboriginal people, continuing cultural practices like fishing the annual mullet run – as their ancestors did for thousands of years – maintains connection with the land and sea of their Country and supports their wellbeing.

“I’m thrilled this coastal landscape will be preserved, and that the La Perouse Aboriginal community can continue to look after this Country with Council’s support,” Mayor Veitch said.

The listing proposal was lodged by Randwick City Council in 2018 to protect the culturally significant area for future generations. At the time, the former State Government was considering a proposal to build a cruise ship terminal in the bay. The Minns Government scrapped the proposal following the 2023 state election. The heritage listing now provides additional protection for the area against any future overdevelopment.

The listing of the Gooriwal Cultural Landscape also acknowledges the significance of the place in some of the earliest moments in the shared history of Aboriginal and European Australia.

In 1770, James Cook’s Endeavour explored the area during an eight-day stay in Kamay-Botany Bay. Eighteen years later, Captain Arthur Phillip (later Governor) and the ‘First Fleet’ moored in the area, before shifting settlement to Sydney Cove in Port Jackson.

The area also holds social value to the French community in Australia and abroad, as one of the last landfalls of French explorer, Jean-Francois de Galaup, Comte de la Perouse, who was resident between 26 January and 10th of March 1788.

Further information is accessible on the Heritage NSW website.