Explore Gadigal Country

Thousands of people complete the Spit to Manly Walk every year.

They stop for coffee, photograph the harbour, admire the cliffs and continue towards Manly.

Yet only a short detour from the track lies one of Sydney’s oldest galleries—one with no walls, no admission fee and no opening hours.

At Grotto Point, ancient engravings emerge from the sandstone. A giant kangaroo. Fish. Boomerangs. Figures carved into the rock by the Aboriginal people of this Country long before Sydney became a city. These are not decorations. They are part of a living cultural landscape that has existed for thousands of generations. 

Standing here changes the way you see the harbour. It stops being simply beautiful and becomes something much deeper: a place of knowledge, movement and memory.

It’s easy to forget that before ferries crossed these waters and bridges connected the shoreline, people already knew every current, every season and every plant that grew along these cliffs. Country was never something to conquer. It was something to understand.

Today, raised boardwalks protect the engravings from being worn away by thousands of footsteps. They quietly remind us that respecting a place sometimes means simply slowing down and looking more carefully. 

You don’t need to travel into the Australian outback to experience First Nations heritage. Sometimes, one of the most meaningful encounters is hidden just a few metres from one of Sydney’s busiest walking tracks.

The next time you walk the harbour, pause for a moment.

The oldest story in Sydney might be right beneath your feet.

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Why this matters

Exploring Gadigal Country isn’t only about discovering beautiful places. It’s about recognising that these landscapes have always held knowledge, culture and history. Every respectful visit is an opportunity to see Sydney not as a city that began in 1788, but as a place with tens of thousands of years of continuous human connection.