THE history of man in our area began long before the coming of the first white men. All this area contains evidence of corroborees and other gatherings of the continent’s indigenous people, in the form of kitchen middens, (ie piles of empty shells), many of which must have been built up over thousands of years. It seems that favourite gathering places of the Aborigines in these early days were Tathra, where a whole headland has been added to considerably by middens, and around the Brogo area, to which Aborigines travelled hundreds of miles for the great tribal assemblies held there. Oral tradition tells of a great battle between members of the local Wallaga tribe and incoming Monaro tribesmen. The name Bermagui itself is an Aboriginal word, which means  resembling a canoe without paddles.

One of our local landmarks has the distinction of being mentioned in the journal of Captain Cook. He was the first to see Mount Dromedary, on April 21, 1770, and gave it its name because of its shape.

Probably the next white men to pass through the South Coast area were a number of seamen from a wrecked vessel, the Sydney Cove, which went down off Point Hicks. They completed a most dangerous and arduous trek northwards to Sydney, probably skirting the coast at Tathra, and passing through the Bega Valley. They lost most of the party on the way, some to the rigours of the journey, and others by the attacks of hostile Aborigines. (Other Aborigines were friendly, and served as guides and ferrymen across rivers.)

Later in the same year, 1797, George Bass discovered the mouth of the Bega River in the course of his epic voyage to Westernport and back, and further south during his voyage, discovered and explored Twofold Bay.

William Duggan Tarlinton, in a most adventurous journey through the rugged territory from Braidwood, led the first party to explore the Bega Valley in 1829, in company with John Campbell, Henry Badgery, William Gerrard and Thomas Cowper.

Tarlinton also cut through to the coast, and was thus probably the first man to come to Bermagui overland. In the following year Campbell was sent down with cattle to make the first settlement in the Brogo area. He was credited with giving Bega its name, based on the Aboriginal Biga or Bikka. Captain Campbell was given a grant of land in recognition of his services at the battle of Trafalgar, and led the first settlement on the northern side of the river, an area now given over to corn crops.