 This includes the use of the beaches and surrounding waters for food gathering, work and recreation, the relationships formed with soldiers stationed on the island and with the veterans, and as part of the social landscape of the community.It also has an added association with Cook, Banks, Phillip and La Perouse and therefore represents for the wider Aboriginal community a significant contact point in the history of European – Aboriginal relationships.For the mainstream Australian community the prevailing importance of Bare Island is its identification as a nineteenth-century fortification.