The first people
The Yalloc Bulluk clan of the Bunurong people, part of the Kulin nation, were the island’s earliest inhabitants. Their names for it include corriong and millowl.
George Bass
On 5 January 1798 the explorer George Bass reached the island by whaleboat from Sydney. He named it after Arthur Phillip, the first governor of New South Wales.
An island of visitors
Visitors have watched the little penguins come ashore at dusk on Summerland Beach since the 1920s, and the first Australian Grand Prix was raced on the island’s roads in 1928. A Maze’N Things, on the road to Cowes, is one more stop on a day on the island.



