Dark Point is a rocky headland located along the coast between Hawks Nest and Seal Rocks. The area has been significant to Worimi people for at least 4000 years.
The Worimi occupied the country from the Hunter River at Newcastle in the South, to the Manning River at Taree in the North and west to Barrington Tops.
The Worimi people consisted of smaller family groups called clans or muras who gathered in particular locations at different times of the year for ceremonies or feasts.
When the bream, taylor and mullet ran along the coast each year in April and may, family groups gathered to feast. Dark point was one of these places.
The abundant food sustained large numbers of people who met at dark Point. Traditional burials have also been found in this area.
Dark Point was also an easy access point for visiting what is now Broughton Island. During the last Ice Age, 17000 years ago, the coastline was 30km east of its current location and the island was part of the mainland.
The sea reached its current height about 6000 years ago and since then Aboriginal clans would meet at Dark Point and take turns to visit the island in male and female groups.
A more brutal history is the massacre of aboriginal people on the headland in the 1830s by settlers.
Local Aboriginal people still travel to the coast to fish and gather shellfish. Dark Point remains important to Aboriginal people, not only for its links to the past, but as a place to pass on the knowledge and cultural practices to future generations of Worimi.
Dark Point Aboriginal Place is managed in consultation with the Worimi Aboriginal Community.
A protected landscape
Sand movements frequently expose an array of Aboriginal objects throughout the Dark Point area and these are easily destroyed by vehicles.
For this reason, vehicles must enter and leave the beach at Lemontree beach access or via Hawks Nest Beach.
Vehicles are not permitted over the headland.
It is an offence to disturb or remove any artefact. For further information contact the Great Lakes Office, Ph 6591 0300.