Cooks Journal: 26 April 1770: The Endeavour has sailed from Yuin Country into Dharawal Country (sometimes spelt Tharawal). Unfavourable winds have forced The Endeavour to tack back to “Red Point” and “Hat Hill” - landmarks that Cook has named the day before.

“8 Leagues to the Northward of this, is a point which I call'd Red Point; some part of the Land about it appeared of that Colour. A little way inland to the North-West of this point is a round hill, the top of which look'd like the Crown of a Hatt.”)

Cook has seen the presence of Dharawal people; “Saw several smooks along shore before dark and two or 3 times afire in the night.” To the Dharawal, the region is known as 'allowrie' or 'eloura' meaning 'white clay mountain' or 'high place near the sea'. It becomes Illawarra.

Cook notes: 'In this Latitude are some white clifts which rise perpendicularly from the sea to a moderate height.” Banks records: ‘Land today more barren in appearance that we hade before seen it: it consisted cheifly of Chalky cliffs something resembling those of old England.”

The traditional language of the Illawarra clans is Dharawal (meaning 'cabbage tree palm'). The clans of the Dharawal nation have been on their country for tens of thousands of years. Their songlines stretch across the region & connects them to their Country and all living things.

They have survived an Ice Age, hunted giant marsupial megafauna like the wombat Diprotodonand and inhabited a coastline that extended some 10 kilometres to the east. Their creation stories predate the formation of islands and Lake Illawarra (which formed some 6000 years ago).

Wollongong itself is said to be from 'Wol-Lon-Yuh', meaning "sound of the sea". 'the sound of the sea'. Also thought to mean five islands.

Cook named it ‘Red Point’ but to the Dharawal it was already known as ‘Dhgillawarah’ and Hatt Hill was known as” "Jum-bulla" or ‘Djenbella’ which has been translated into Mt Kembla. It is thought to mean a place of good hunting where the wallaby or ‘Djembla’ can be hunted.

Mt Kembla is the Dharawal men's mountain, a place of good hunting and initiation. The escapement is called ‘Merigong’ and was created by a giant black serpent (Biamie). It is home to Oola-boola-woo, the West Wind.

Oola-boola-woo is a central figure in the creation of the region including the five islands off Wollongong. The islands are significant to the Dharawal having great importance through stories of country. (Artwork by Lorraine Brown and Narelle Thomas)

Oola-boola-woo has 6 daughters. One of them is Djeera (sometimes spelt Geera). Mt Keria gets it name from Geera and is known as the women's mountain, a teaching place. In the Dreaming, Djenbella and Djeera are sisters. (Artwork by Ghera and Kembla - 2009 by Julie Freeman)

The range is also associated with a 'Dooligah' (or HairyMan') family which live in the mountains. The Dooligah (sometimes spelt Doolagah) could be a menace to the people and would warn them telepathically that they were in the wrong area.

The Illawarra is originally known as the Five Islands district for the 5 islands off Port Kembla and Aboriginal people from the region were called the Five Islands Tribe. (Image: Corrobory (dance) Illawarra region of New South Wales in 1839 by Alfred Thomas Agate)

One of the best known Aboriginal men of the Illawarra district from the nineteenth century was Mickey Johnson (1834-1906). (However he was from the Clarence or Richmond River districts in northern NSW). He moved to the Illawarra in the 1860s with his employer.

For his enterprise, he was designated 'King' of the Illawarra in a ceremony at Wollongong Showground in January 1896, & presented with a breastplate donated by a local politician. Moving away from the Lake Illawarra reserve in his 60s, he died at a camp on the Minnamurra River.

Mickey Johnson and family meeting with William Buthong (King Billy or Madbili) of Shoalhaven and family.

Mickey is featured on the 1938 Sesquicentennial Poster Stamps Sheet commemorating the 150th anniversary of the settlement of the British Crown Colony of New South Wales.