The well known activist Pearl Gibbs is born near Botany Bay. She is the first woman, and one of the first Koori people, in the 1940s, to become a member of the Aborigines Welfare Board. She complains that the Board members drink in the hotel so as to deny her entry to their discussions. (In the 1940s women did not drink in the public bars, and Koori people were not allowed into hotels at all).