Over thousands of years, mounds of shells known as middens had heaped up on the southern harbour shores and banks of the Cooks River, a testament to the ongoing presence of the Eora clans and their knowledge of gaining sustenance from land and sea without destroying it.

After thousands of years of connection with food sources and keen observation of the seasonal changes, Eora people knew that the flowering of the Sydney golden wattle (Acacia longifolia) signalled the time to fish for mullet.

It was not uncommon to see a man diving for shellfish in the shallow water at Warrane (Sydney Cove). On the nearby rocks a small fire burned, a friend waiting to be thrown whatever oysters, mussels, lobsters, crabs or cockles the diver caught.(K.Smith, 2001)

Family groups gathered round such small fires feasting on shellfish and a great variety of fish. The occasional beached whale provided an opportunity for the Cadigal and Wangal people to come together with other Eora clans, their feasts often numbering more than 200 people.

Along the river banks they caught and ate short-finned eels or burra, freshwater mullet, silver perch, catfish, blackfish, mud crabs, yabbies, tortoises, mussels and crayfish.