Barrenjoey, New South Wales

Barrenjoey is a locality in the suburb of Palm Beach, at the most northern tip of Pittwater.

[1] Around 10,000 years ago the headland was cut off from the mainland due to the rising sea level; subsequent buildup of a sand spit or tombolo reconnected the island to the mainland (a 'tied island').

[2] On 2 March 1788, Arthur Phillip named the headland "Barrenjuee" (meaning little kangaroo or wallaby).

[3] Since the 1980s it has been featured heavily in the soap opera Home and Away, during both the credits and the show itself.

Mapping by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage in 2013 shows Barrenjoey headland containing tiny pockets of Coastal escarpment littoral rainforest, a particular subgroup of the Littoral Rainforest community, which is an endangered ecological community,[4] together with the communities: Coastal Headland Clay Heath, Coastal Sand Tea-tree-Banksia Scrub (on the coastal fore-dune), Central Coast Escarpment Moist Forest, and Coastal Sandstone Foreshores Forest (on sandstone soils derived from either Hawkesbury or Narrabeen geology, and exposed to salt winds).