Narrabeen

Narrabeen is a beachside suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia.

Narrabeen is a beachside suburb in northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Narrabeen is 23 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Northern Beaches Council and is part of the Northern Beaches region. This area was named Broken Bay by James Cook as he sailed by.

There are a number of theories on the origin of the name "Narrabeen". The most fanciful is that Narrabeen is named after "narrow beans" which the English in the first year of settlement (1788) found and ate from a vine growing over beach sand.Surgeon White indeed recorded getting ill from such beans but this was well north of Narrabeen, near Broken Bay.The name Narrobine Creek appears in 1801 in records relating to two escaped convicts, and thus the name appears to have been in use before then.Another suggestion is that it derives from an Aboriginal word meaning swan.Surveyor James Meehan placed the name Narabang Narabang Lagoon on a map in 1814 and thought the word meant swan.According to The Budawa Aboriginal Signage Group Inc., Narrabeen means "source of fresh water".However the most popular theory has been that it involves the first settlers in the area, a Captain Henry Reynolds, a first fleeter, who took his family to live near the Narrabeen Lagoon.They were all massacred by attack from escaped convicts turned bushrangers, and their homestead burned. The location was then named after the young Aboriginal girl Narrabine/Narrabeen who tried to assist the settlers and helped soldiers capture the escaped convicts involved in the massacre.

The first land grants were made to John Lees (40 acres (16 ha)), Philip Schaffer (50 acres (20 ha)), and James Wheeler (80 acres (32 ha)) all along the south bank of Mullet Creek. Alex Macdonald was granted 80 acres (32 ha) at the beach in 1815 and west of this land JT Collins had 93.5 acres (37.8 ha) by 1857.During the nineteenth century, travellers had to ford the lake until 1880 when the first bridge opened. A second bridge at the mouth of the lagoon in Ocean Street was built in 1925. Narrabeen Post Office opened on 1 August 1898. Narrabeen North Post Office opened on 19 August 1926 and closed in 1984.

With the extension of the tram to Narrabeen in 1913 providing easier transport, the whole area around the lake became popular for holidays and camping. A large camping ground became established on the north shore of the lagoon. In 1946 the Wakehurst Parkway was opened to North Narrabeen connecting the whole Pittwater area directly to Frenchs Forest and Seaforth. Narrabeen East Post Office opened on 2 June 1947, was renamed Narrabeen Peninsula in November that year and closed in 1965.In January 2005, workmen excavating beside the bus shelter on Ocean Street at Octavia Street found a skeleton, which subsequent investigation revealed to be 4,000-year-old remains of a man. He has become known as Narrabeen Man.