Balmoral Beach archaeological site
Koori people camped near coastal creeks and inlets creating huge middens (piles) of discarded bones, shells and artefacts. Investigations have allowed archaeologists a glimpse of the coastal Koori diet. Bones of birds discovered in middens include shearwaters and fairy penguins, reptiles like the diamond python, and bones of snapper, bream, wrasse, blue groper, catfish, flathead, and remains of shellfish and wild seeds of the cycad Macrozamia. Important midden sites on the northern coast include Great Mackerel Beach, Forty Baskets Beach, Balmoral Beach, Long Reef, Palm Beach.
An important northside archaeological site is at the southern end of Balmoral Beach, where two small rockshelters can be found Local residents call the site ‘Bungaree’s cave’. The archaeologist Val Attenbrow believes it highly likely that he and other members of his family camped here. Among other important discoveries was a boy’s tooth, which perhaps had been removed ceremonially.