Table of Contents
Did Cook really discover Australia?
After observing the transit of Venus in Tahiti and mapping the North and South Islands of New Zealand, the Endeavour sailed west. The crew first sighted the mainland of Australia on 19 April 1770. James Cook and some of his crew landed at Kamay Botany Bay on 29 April 1770.
Did James Cook take over Australia?
The idea that Cook discovered Australia has long been debunked, and was debated as recently as 2017 when Indigenous broadcaster Stan Grant pointed to an inscription on statue in Sydney’s Hyde Park. “Discovered this territory 1770,” the inscription reads.
Why is Australia Day on the 26th?
Australia Day is the official national day of Australia. Observed annually on 26 January, it marks the 1788 landing of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove and raising of the Union Flag by Arthur Phillip following days of exploration of Port Jackson in New South Wales.
When did James Cook explore the east coast of Australia?
Other European explorers followed until, in 1770, Lieutenant James Cook charted the east coast of Australia for Great Britain and returned with accounts favouring colonisation at Botany Bay (now in Sydney), New South Wales.
Why did Captain Cook write that he had failed to discover Australia?
After charting the east coast of Australia, Cook wrote that he had “failed in discovering the so-much-talked-of southern continent”. “What became clear was that Cook was essentially just joining the dots that had already been started by other European encounters,” Dr Blyth said.
What did James Cook claim for New South Wales?
Lieutenant James Cook, captain of HMB Endeavour, claimed the eastern portion of the Australian continent for the British Crown in 1770, naming it New South Wales. In his journal, he wrote: ‘so far as we know [it] doth not produce any one thing that can become an Article in trade to invite Europeans to fix a settlement upon it’.
Where did cook go on his second voyage?
From Tahiti, Cook sailed to Huahine, Bora Bora and Raiatea before heading south-west in search of the Great South Land. Not finding it, he sailed to New Zealand and spent six months charting its coast. (Cook exploded the myth of a habitable Great South Land in on his second voyage (1772–75).