Tharawali

The Tharawal, also written Dharawal, are the Aboriginal Australian clans who shared the Dharawal language along the coast south of Sydney, their country running from Botany Bay and the Georges River to the Shoalhaven River; the name itself means cabbage palm. Clans included the Gweagal, the Fire Clan of the Botany Bay shore, and the Wadi Wadi of the Five Islands off Port Kembla.

They ground the treated seeds of the burrawang cycad into flour cakes, fished from bark canoes and carved sandstone engravings of whales and wallabies, and whales and dolphins held special totem status.

In 1770 James Cook made his first landing on the Australian east coast in Gweagal country at Botany Bay, where two men opposed the landing boats with spears until musket fire drove them back.