Looking over Auckland Point wharf from Auckland Hill, out through The Gut, to Facing Island.
The first wharf was built in 1885 following European settlement which began in 1847. Prior to this, three aboriginal tribes had lived in the area and were recorded in Matthew Flinder's journals in 1803 as living on Facing Island around a fresh water soak that still exists today.
Once when the children were little, we were caught on Facing Island in a cyclone. When the storm ended, we discovered aboriginal middens in the dunes on the seaward side of the island. They'd been exposed by the violent winds .
It was very eerie. It was as if the tribe would return tomorrow and begin to crush the shells they gathered from the shore at low tide and carried up into the dunes.
Huge flat rocks lay on the uphill side of a pile of crushed shells pushed off to the bottom righthand side of each rock. Still lying to the left hand side were two or three smaller hand sized rocks used to crush the shells on the large rock. Not even the old timers on the island had seen them before. Who knows how many years this "factory" had lain hidden beneath the sand? It was an amazing thing to see. Within a few years the area had completely disappeared covered again by the shifting sands.
I like the story of the history of the area and your experience of a glimpse into the past. This looks like a very peaceful place in spite of the fact it is not commercialized.
