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Sydney Harbour's central foreshore of Circular Quay and the adjoining Farm Cove have both been extensively reclaimed, with the original high water mark of both locations almost 100 metres further 'inland' than they are today.

Originally there were many useful native trees growing on Bennelong Point and nearby, including the world's only fruiting Pine tree, and a tree known as the Candle Palm, so named because the nut could be crushed and its highly flammable kernel lit to provide portable night light. The first European settlers to Sydney Cove observed the indigenous Australians using this ingenious form of lighting and copied the practice.

Bennelong Point - the site of the Sydney Opera House - was originally straddled by the Tank Stream on one side and Freshwater Creek on the other. Today the Tank Stream flows silent and unseen underneath Pitt Street, while Freshwater Creek can still be found trickling through Sydney's Botanical Gardens. Bennelong Point is named after one of the first aborigines to live with the European settlers, and the first Aborigine to travel to Europe. Bennelong adopted European dress and ways, and learned English. Bennelong is also known to have taught several important colonisers the local Aboriginal language and customs in an attempt to aid relations between the two groups. Governor Phillip built Bennelong a hut on the point that now bears his name. Present-day aboriginal elders are divided over whether Bennelong was a peace-maker and diplomat, or traitor.

Tobagully is the aboriginal name for Bennelong Point, identifying it for the white clay ocre quarry from which the local aborigines made their ceremonial body paint. Mounds of white 'middens' composed of piles of harbour shells discarded by the aboriginal fishermen also dotted Bennelong Point. These white mountains of shells recorded an unbroken lineage of tribal activity sometimes spanning thousands of years. Today's aboriginal spokesmen are adamant that Jorn Utzon used this well documented history of local colour to inform his creation of the inspirational white sails of the Sydney Opera house, and their shell-like shape.

The middens such as those at Tobagully were also part of Aborigine resource management. Each layer of shells accurately recorded the type of seafood most recently harvested. This allowed the following fishermen to check the midden and then harvest a different type of seafood. In this way the food resource was managed sustainably and preserved. Since the destruction of the aboriginal culture there are now few seashells to be found in the area.

Because the new settlers failed to recognise the significance of the middens to ecological management, the shells were soon ground up and used as mortar in the early colonial buildings. Today, we can still see the telltale white shell-grit mortar supporting many of Central Sydney's older sandstone buildings.

Sydney Harbour's central foreshore of Circular Quay and the adjoining Farm Cove have both been extensively reclaimed, with the original high water mark of both locations almost 100 metres further 'inland' than they are today.