Parsley Bay, Vaucluse

For the next few days, we're going to visit Parsley Bay in Sydney's east - a picture perfect swimming cove on the harbour, complete with shark net, great coffees, a unique structure, and some intriguing resident wildlife.

The traditional owners of the land were members of the Birrabirragal band, a coastal group which clustered around the periphery of Sydney Harbour.

There are two  popular versions of the origin of the name Parsley Bay. One, that a hermit called 'Parsley' lived in early years in one of the caves at the head of the bay, the other is traditional and was probably used by the first exploratory parties (1788) to refer to an edible plant growing there, closely resembling parsley, which was used as an anti-scorbutic (scurvy) by the vitamin starved First Fleeters. 

The Bay was set aside for public recreation use in 1907.