Bundeena is a village on the outskirts of southern Sydney, and is located 29km south of the central business district it is part of the local government area of the Sutherland Shire. Bundeena is an Aboriginal word meaning noise like thunder, and many rock engravings made by the Dharawal people can be seen at Jibbon Head.
The area was investigated in 1796 by Bass and Flinders who decided it was not a suitable area for a settlement. There were reports in 1815 of criminals in the Cabbage Tree Creek region producing sly grog which they then stored in the caves along the foreshore.
Owen Byrne was Bundeena’s first white settler, with land being granted to him in 1832. George Simpson was given a land grant at the nearby Bonnie Vale in 1863 and the Simpson Hotel was opened in the area now known as Simpsons Bay in the 1870′s by George’s son William.