At Botany Bay
The Endeavour continued northwards from Point Hicks, keeping the land in sight as Cook charted and named landmarks as they progressed. On 29 April they spied an indentation in the shoreline. An investigation proved that the inlet led to a large but shallow enclosed body of salt water. As the ship carefully sailed in and dropped anchor off a low headland fronted by sand dunes, they noticed some Aboriginal men on both of the headlands. James Cook and crew made their first landing on the continent, at a place now known as Kurnell Peninsula. That afternoon, Cook made contact with two Aborigines, a younger and an older man who would not accept the offer of gifts. At the show of aggression, a musket was fired over their heads, wounding the older man slightly. They were chased off after two more rounds were fired; Cook left some beads with several Aboriginal children as a gesture of friendship.
At first Cook bestowed the name "Sting-Ray Harbour" to the inlet after the many such creatures found there. Over their stay, the expedition's scientific members - botanists Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander and Herman Sporing - made specimens of 132 plant species, the first scientific collection of amazing new species of Australian flora. This prompted Cook to change the name to "Botanist Bay", then finally to Botany Bay. Joseph Banks later promoted the site to the British Government a suitable place for a penal colony.
An unexpected outcome of Cook's explorations to the north of Botany Bay?
When Commander of the First Fleet, Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived to establish a penal colony in 1788, he found that Botany Bay was, in many respects, not suitable for establishing a colony. The Port Jackson islands were known to Phillip before he departed England in 1787. Phillip gave orders to relocate from Botany Bay to a Port Jackson, where a new colony was established - based on his discussions with the Home Office:
It must be left to me to fix at Botany Bay, if I find it a proper place - if not to go to a Port a few Leagues to the Northward, where there appear'd to be a good Harbour and sevral Islands - as the Natives are very expert in setting fire to the grass, the having an Island to secure our Stock, would be great advantage, & there is none in or off, Botany Bay.
Explorations confirmed that the land, mainly dunes and marches, surrounding Botany Bay was not an ideal place for any future British settlement. For Arthur Phillip to know the existence of these islands, Cook, the intrepid explorer, must have followed one of the ancient Aboriginal tracks that connect Botany Bay to Port Jackson, a distance of some ten kilometres, and saw the full extent of the deep, natural harbour. The Admiralty had ordered Cook to conceal strategically valuable discoveries, so he omitted any reference of his view of this Harbour from his journal and chart.
Port Jackson and the coastline north
On 6 May 1770, the Endeavour left Botany Bay and sailed north past Port Jackson. No-one on the ship recorded seeing any of the Harbour's many islands because their line of sight through a dog-leg entrance was blocked by the high promontories of South Head and Bradleys Head. Cook continued north passing Broken Bay (with its three generous arms of Pittwater, Brisbane Water and the Hawkesbury River); Newcastle Harbour and the Hunter River, Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, the Clarence and Richmond Rivers. Many of these are fine natural harbours, far superior to Botany Bay in terms of depth, shelter, fresh water, vegetation, food and soils. But the Endeavour entered none of them - Cook had found what he wanted and there was no need to investigate anything more. As the Endeavour never entered Port Jackson, the only way Cook could have discovered it is by walking overland from Botany Bay.
It could be concluded that Phillip's haste to relocate the First Fleet to Port Jackson was because of his prior knowledge of what proved to be the finest harbour in the world.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_voyage_of_James_Cook#Bass_Strait
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/banks-sir-joseph-1737
Cook’s overland walk was first proposed in Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook's Endeavour Voyage, by Margaret Cameron-Ash, 2018.
Images from the internet including (above) Cook landing at Botany Bay (SLNSW) and (below) Joseph Banks' flora images
© Arthur Phillip Chapter of Fellowship of First Fleeters 2021-
The Endeavour continued northwards from Point Hicks, keeping the land in sight as Cook charted and named landmarks as they progressed. On 29 April they spied an indentation in the shoreline. An investigation proved that the inlet led to a large but shallow enclosed body of salt water. As the ship carefully sailed in and dropped anchor off a low headland fronted by sand dunes, they noticed some Aboriginal men on both of the headlands. James Cook and crew made their first landing on the continent, at a place now known as Kurnell Peninsula. That afternoon, Cook made contact with two Aborigines, a younger and an older man who would not accept the offer of gifts. At the show of aggression, a musket was fired over their heads, wounding the older man slightly. They were chased off after two more rounds were fired; Cook left some beads with several Aboriginal children as a gesture of friendship.
At first Cook bestowed the name "Sting-Ray Harbour" to the inlet after the many such creatures found there. Over their stay, the expedition's scientific members - botanists Joseph Banks, Daniel Solander and Herman Sporing - made specimens of 132 plant species, the first scientific collection of amazing new species of Australian flora. This prompted Cook to change the name to "Botanist Bay", then finally to Botany Bay. Joseph Banks later promoted the site to the British Government a suitable place for a penal colony.
An unexpected outcome of Cook's explorations to the north of Botany Bay?
When Commander of the First Fleet, Captain Arthur Phillip, arrived to establish a penal colony in 1788, he found that Botany Bay was, in many respects, not suitable for establishing a colony. The Port Jackson islands were known to Phillip before he departed England in 1787. Phillip gave orders to relocate from Botany Bay to a Port Jackson, where a new colony was established - based on his discussions with the Home Office:
It must be left to me to fix at Botany Bay, if I find it a proper place - if not to go to a Port a few Leagues to the Northward, where there appear'd to be a good Harbour and sevral Islands - as the Natives are very expert in setting fire to the grass, the having an Island to secure our Stock, would be great advantage, & there is none in or off, Botany Bay.
Explorations confirmed that the land, mainly dunes and marches, surrounding Botany Bay was not an ideal place for any future British settlement. For Arthur Phillip to know the existence of these islands, Cook, the intrepid explorer, must have followed one of the ancient Aboriginal tracks that connect Botany Bay to Port Jackson, a distance of some ten kilometres, and saw the full extent of the deep, natural harbour. The Admiralty had ordered Cook to conceal strategically valuable discoveries, so he omitted any reference of his view of this Harbour from his journal and chart.
Port Jackson and the coastline north
On 6 May 1770, the Endeavour left Botany Bay and sailed north past Port Jackson. No-one on the ship recorded seeing any of the Harbour's many islands because their line of sight through a dog-leg entrance was blocked by the high promontories of South Head and Bradleys Head. Cook continued north passing Broken Bay (with its three generous arms of Pittwater, Brisbane Water and the Hawkesbury River); Newcastle Harbour and the Hunter River, Port Stephens, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, the Clarence and Richmond Rivers. Many of these are fine natural harbours, far superior to Botany Bay in terms of depth, shelter, fresh water, vegetation, food and soils. But the Endeavour entered none of them - Cook had found what he wanted and there was no need to investigate anything more. As the Endeavour never entered Port Jackson, the only way Cook could have discovered it is by walking overland from Botany Bay.
It could be concluded that Phillip's haste to relocate the First Fleet to Port Jackson was because of his prior knowledge of what proved to be the finest harbour in the world.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_voyage_of_James_Cook#Bass_Strait
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/banks-sir-joseph-1737
Cook’s overland walk was first proposed in Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook's Endeavour Voyage, by Margaret Cameron-Ash, 2018.
Images from the internet including (above) Cook landing at Botany Bay (SLNSW) and (below) Joseph Banks' flora images
© Arthur Phillip Chapter of Fellowship of First Fleeters 2021-