The short answer: Manly is named after the Aboriginal men Governor Arthur Phillip met on its beach in January 1788. In his first despatch to London he wrote: "Their confidence and manly behaviour made me give the name of Manly Cove to this place."
The longer answer is more interesting. It involves a name that was already there, a cove that isn't the beach most people picture, and a suburb that very nearly ended up being called Brighton.
What Phillip Actually Wrote
In the third week of January 1788, before the First Fleet moved from Botany Bay to Sydney Cove, Phillip took boats into Port Jackson to explore it. On the northern side of the harbour, a group of Aboriginal men waded out to meet the strangers.
What struck Phillip was their composure. In his despatch to Lord Sydney of 15 May 1788 he gave them the line above, and the name stuck.
It's worth reading "manly" the way an 18th-century naval officer meant it. It wasn't about being male. It meant bold, dignified and unafraid. Phillip was paying the people he met a compliment, and recording that they met him as equals.
Which "Manly Cove"?
Phillip named a cove, not a beach. Manly Cove is the calm harbour beach beside today's ferry wharf, on the sheltered side of the peninsula. The famous ocean beach on the other side of The Corso only took the name later, as the village grew between the two. So if you step off the ferry and onto the harbour sand, you're standing roughly where the name started.
The name spread along the harbour too. Little Manly, the small cove to the south, was named in 1809 by the surveyor James Meehan.
The Name That Was Already There
The place had a name long before Phillip arrived. It was Kai'ymay, recorded by the colonists in various spellings. Northern Beaches Council today writes it Gayamay and refers to the site as "Gayamay/Manly Cove".
The name of the clan who lived there isn't known for certain. Because Aboriginal clan names in the Sydney region were usually formed by adding -gal ("people of") to a place name, historians use Gayamaygal (or Kai'ymaygal): the people of Kai'ymay. They may have been part of, or closely tied to, the Cammeraygal of the lower north shore. Their country took in the harbour beaches, Cabbage Tree Bay and North Head, with its fish, shellfish and rock shelters, for many thousands of years before 1788.
That's why you'll see the line on this site, and across Manly, acknowledging the Gayamaygal as the traditional custodians of the land now called Manly.
What Happened Next at Manly Cove
The friendly first meeting didn't set the tone for what followed. Manly Cove became the scene of two of the best-known episodes of early contact.
- 25 November 1789: on Phillip's orders, two men, Bennelong and Colebee, were seized on the beach at Manly Cove and taken to the settlement. Phillip wanted to learn the language and customs of the people around the harbour. Colebee soon escaped; Bennelong stayed for some months before slipping away.
- 7 September 1790: a whale had washed up, and around 200 people gathered at Manly Cove to feast on it, Bennelong among them. Phillip came across to meet him. In the tense moments that followed, a man named Willemering threw a spear that struck Phillip near the shoulder. Phillip survived, and ordered that there be no retaliation. Some historians think the attack was payback for Bennelong's kidnapping.
It's an uncomfortable pairing: a place named in admiration, and then the scene of a kidnapping and a spearing within three years. Both are part of the story of the name.
How a Cove's Name Became a Suburb
For decades after 1788, Manly was little more than bush, a few farms and a beach that boats called at. That changed in the 1850s with Henry Gilbert Smith, an English businessman who bought land here and set out to turn it into a seaside resort. He marketed it as the Brighton of the South Pacific, and the Brighton idea nearly stuck for good.
In 1876, residents petitioned to form a municipality. The charter they first sought was for "Brighton", but it was soon amended to "Manly", and the Municipal District of Manly was incorporated on 6 January 1877. Phillip's name for one small cove had become the name of the whole town.
The ferries did the rest. From the 1920s the steamship company sold Manly with a slogan locals still quote: "Seven miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care." Manly Council ran the area until 2016, when it merged with Warringah and Pittwater to form Northern Beaches Council. The suburb's name is still Manly.
Not to Be Confused With…
There's a Manly in Brisbane too, on Moreton Bay. It dates from an 1882 land sale called the Manly Beach Estate, apparently named after this one. So in a roundabout way it's a compliment to the same men Phillip met in 1788.
Where to See the Story Today
- Manly Cove, beside the wharf: the beach where it began. Stand on the harbour sand and look back towards the city.
- North Head: Gayamaygal country, and later the Quarantine Station. The historical walk takes you past the old fortifications and the Quarantine Station.
- Manly Art Gallery & Museum on West Esplanade, two minutes from the ferry, where local history and First Nations artists often feature in the program.
- Our history of Manly page has the full timeline, from Gayamaygal country to the first surf clubs.
The Bottom Line
Manly is named for the confidence of the people who already lived here. Phillip saw it in January 1788, wrote it into his first despatch, and gave a cove the name that a petition in 1876 stretched across the whole suburb. The older name is still here too: the council writes it Gayamay, alongside Manly Cove, for the beach the ferry pulls in to.
