Bass Point coastline - the Bertha (1879); Our Own (1880); Alexander Berry (1901); Comboyne (1920); Kiltobranks (1924); and the Cities Service Boston (1943). The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history. Bass Point Reserve is of state heritage significance for its association with a number of significant people and groups. Traditionally, and for some 20,000 years prior to European settlement, the land has been occupied by the Elouera people of the Dharawal group. The longevity of the use of Bass Point as a camping and meeting place indicates its significance to the Aboriginal people of this region. Documentary, archaeological and oral evidence indicate that Bass Point was, and is, considered to be an extremely important place by local Aboriginal people and that "the general "feeling" about the place was that it was a good and happy place". Although the significance of this site to the Elouera people stretches for thousands of years into the past, its importance to the contemporary Aboriginal community continues today. Bass Point also had a significant, but brief, association with Captain James Cook and the Endeavour. As the Endeavour sailed by the Illawarra coastline in April 1770, journal notes were made about their observations of the landscape and the traditional Aboriginal occupants. There is evidence to suggest that Cook attempted a landing in the region but abandoned the effort due to dangerous conditions. Had this landing attempt succeeded, it would have been the first on Australian soil - predating that at Botany Bay. The first recorded European visit to the region was by colonial explorers and naval men, George Bass and Matthew Flinders, in 1796. Exploring the unknown country to observe and report back to the colony, Bass and Flinders were most-likely the first contact the Elouera people had had with European settlers. The contemporary naming of Bass Point commemorates the initial explorations of these significant explorers. After the Illawarra region had been officially settled, the land was divided into free grants, and Bass Point was granted to D'Arcy Wentworth, a wealthy colonial official and medical practitioner. Wentworth had arrived in Australia as a free settler and Assistant Surgeon on a convict fleet in 1790. By 1811, Governor Lachlan Macquarie had appointed him Principal Surgeon and Principal Superintendent of Police. Also a founding member of the Bank