The suburb is named after a passenger cargo steamer called the MV Malabar shipwrecked at Long Bay on 2 April 1931.

The ship was named after the Malabar region of the Indian state of Kerala famous for its history as a spice trade centre.

The western and eastern sections of the headland contain rare examples of the once extensive Port Jackson mallee scrub (Eucalyptus obstans, formerly Obtusiflora).

Since European settlement, the headland has been used for dairy farming, recreational shooting, military use as a training facility, and a defensive position during World War II known as the Boora Point Battery.

The tenders included a proposal from Club Med to build a 300-room resort complex linked to an eighteen-hole golf course on the headland.

In the greater Sydney metropolitan area there are over 55,000 licensed firearms owners who are required by law to use their equipment two, four, or more times per year.

The number of people using the headland exceeded 1,000 per week until the Labor Government terminated the user leases in October 2011 citing questionable health and safety concerns.

[12] By the mid nineteenth century the traditional owners of this land had typically either moved inland in search of food and shelter, or had died as the result of European disease or confrontation with British colonisers.

[11][1] One of the earliest land grants in this area was made in 1824 to Captain Francis Marsh, who received 4.9 hectares (12 acres) bounded by the present Botany and High Streets, Alison and Belmore Roads.

The village was isolated from Sydney by swamps and sandhills, and although a horse-bus was operated by a man named Grice from the late 1850s, the journey was more a test of nerves than a pleasure jaunt.

The wealthy lived elegantly in large houses built when Pearce promoted Randwick and Coogee as a fashionable area.

An even poorer group were the immigrants who existed on the periphery of Randwick in a place called Irishtown, in the area now known as The Spot, around the junction of St. Paul's Street and Perouse Road.

Many European migrants have made their homes in the area, along with students and workers at the nearby University of NSW and the Prince of Wales Hospital.

We have fully funded a $5 million upgrade to the Central Malabar Headland, confirmed in the recent release of the 2015-16 Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook.

[1] Minister Speakman said the transfer was a win for the local environment with the South-Eastern Headland home to some of the last remnants of the threatened Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub and a surviving coastal battery from the defence of Sydney during World War II.

"On behalf of the people of New South Wales, I am delighted to welcome back this portion of the Headland after nearly a hundred years of Commonwealth ownership," Minister Speakman said.

"We will now work hard to gazette the area as a National Park and to enable safe and significant public access," Minister Speakman said.

Both sections contain remnant coastal vegetation communities of Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub growing on Pleistocene sand.

On exposed cliff edges the vegetation is low scrub of coast rosemary (Westringia fruticosa) and spiny headed mat rush (Lomandra longifolia).

More sheltered sites in the north-east gully support a low woodland dominated by red bloodwood (Corymbia gummifera).

The high diversity of plant species found in this section of the Long Bay area is the result of the combination of sand sheet and sandstone soils which occur here.

Although no detailed faunal surveys have been carried out in the area, field observations have noted a diverse bird and small reptile fauna.

The NSW Scientific Committee has stated that the threats to the survival of Eastern Suburbs Banksia Community include fragmentation, development, increased nutrient status, inappropriate fire regimes, invasion by exotic plants, grazing by horses and rabbits, erosion from use of bicycles, motorcycles and from excessive pedestrian use.

Eastern Suburbs Banksia Scrub is regarded as of extremely high conservation significance, due to the extent of previous clearing.

[1] The place contains the last known population of the once extensive Port Jackson mallee (EUCALYPTUS OBSTANS, formerly OBTUSIFLORA) in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney.

[1] The place includes a World War Two coastal defence site of historic significance, the Boora Point Battery.

[18] The battery features a number of particularly unusual attributes, including a rare example of 6 inch Mark XII gun mountings, a completely underground counter bombardment facility, with gun crew ready rooms, ammunition supply and engine room and a small gauge sunken railway associated with an imposing observation post.

[1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

The Malabar Headland is of State significance as it contains the largest area of diverse native bushland in the Sydney's Eastern Suburbs matched only by Botany Bay National Park and is one of few remaining examples of vegetation communities that were present prior to European occupation.

The Malabar Headland is of State significance as the extant battery features a number of particularly unusual attributes, including a rare example of 6 inch Mark XII gun mountings, a completely underground counter bombardment facility, with gun crew ready rooms, ammunition supply and engine room and a small gauge sunken railway associated with an imposing observation post.