So, what could have been a romantic notion of the beginnings of Egyptian or Portugese civilisation on Australian soil is probably just that — a romantic notion.

Egyptians and Portugese probably did shelter in the beautiful bays ol the south coast but left no more permanent marks on the land than their own sunken ships and pottery, not even a small treasure.

My diving in the bay brought up only a few oysters, which I immed­iately ate, a can of KB, empty and probably dated around the early 1980s and a lead sinker, my own, which I had lost the day before. Journalism isn’t just hard work you know.