Fish formed a major part of the diet of the people who lived along the coast in the Sydney region in pre-colonial times. Fish also played an important role in Aboriginal people's spiritual lives.

The importance of fish in Aboriginal life is evident in the numerous engraved outlines of fish seen on many of the rock platforms around the foreshores of Sydney Harbour. This importance is also seen in many of the fishing scenes represented by early colonial artists. In addition, there are some early nineteenth century drawings of fish outlines which may have been made by local people for the French artist Charles Alexandre Lesueur who visited Sydney in 1802 or they may be drawings by Lesueur himself of engravings he saw.

Aboriginal people had several names. One name they received when they were about four to six weeks old was that of an object or animal such as a bird, a beast or a fish. For example, three men well-known to the British colonists were named after fish. Ballederry said his named signified the leatherjacket; Bennelong said he was named after a large fish, and Mawberry was named after the gurnard. It is possible these were the names of their totems, which symbolised membership of clans or other groups, often having ritual association.

'Fishing, indeed, seems to engross nearly the whole of their time, probably from its forming the chief part of a subsistence'

Captain Watkin Tench, 1789

Luderick
Girella tricuspidata

Sand Whiting
Sillago ciliata

Grey Morwong
Nemadactylus douglasii

Rock Cod
Epinephelus spp.

Images above from: Roughley TC (1963) Fish and Fisheries of Australia. From the collection of the Australian Museum Research Library