Before the British colonisation of South Australia, the Sellicks Beach area, along with most of the Adelaide plains area and down the western side of the Fleurieu Peninsula, was inhabited by the Kaurna people. There is a significant site associated with the Kaurna Dreaming of the creator ancestor Tjilbruke, with a commemorative plaque on the end of Francis Street on the Esplanade. This was unveiled in 1986, the year of the South Australian sesquicentenary, as part of the Tjilbruke Dreaming Track.