Text and Photos by Jones Matos da Silva
Bittangabee Bay is located in Ben Boyd National Park to the south of the coastal town of Eden along the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. These ruins are claimed by Kenneth McIntyre to be of Portuguese origin.
I drove there last month and took me 8 hours drive from Sydney (480 km), south towards Melbourne. It was not difficult to access the bay, it is well signed and even that the last 18 km to the bay are unsealed road the drive is quite pleasant.
These ruins are quite controversial, no one has really approach a conclusion of what they are, as a example, Gavin Menzies in his ‘1421’ consider it a Chinese construction.
I had seen ruins of Portuguese forts in Brazil and I can say that this is not a fort, but, the footprint reminding me of the old colonial houses in Brazil up to the 17th century, but sure, this is only a first impression.
According to Michael Pearson the ruins are not of Portuguese origin, in his studies he date back the ruins to the nineteenth century. Precisely the remains have been dated to 1844.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
– Kenneth Gordon McIntyre “The Secret Discovery of Australia – Portuguese ventures 200 years before Captain Cook” Souvenir Press, 1977.
– Trickett, P. “Beyond Capricorn. How Portuguese adventurers discovered and mapped Australia and New Zealand 250 years before Captain Cook” 2007, East St. Publications. Adelaide