The traditional custodians of the land surrounding Point Hicks are the Australian AboriginalBidawal and Gunaikurnai peoples who called the point Tolywiarar.[1][2] In April 1770 this area became the first land on the east coast of Australia known to have been sighted by Europeans, when HMSEndeavour reached the continent during the first voyage of James Cook to the Pacific.
Name
The point is named after Lieutenant Zachary Hicks of the Endeavour who, in April 1770, first saw land presumed to be the east coast of New Holland.[3]
History
After charting New Zealand during his first voyage of discovery, Cook set a course westwards, intending to strike for Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) to establish whether or not it formed part of the presumed southern continent. However, he was forced to maintain a more northerly course owing to prevailing gales, and sailed on until 19 April 1770, when land was sighted at 6 a.m. Two hours later, Cook made a further observation of land and named it Point Hicks. Cook recorded the event thus:
the Southermost [sic] Point of land we had in sight which bore from us W1/4S I judged to lay in the Latitude of 38°..0' S° and in the Longitude of 211°..07' W t from the Meridian of Greenwich. I have named it Point Hicks, because Lieut t Hicks was the first who discover'd this land.[4]
Cook calculated that Van Diemen's Land ought to lie due south of their position, but having found the coastline trending to the south-west, recorded his doubt that this landmass was connected to it.[4]
Cook's manuscript chart of Australia's east coast, starts at a point he named Point Hicks and gave its coordinates as 38°0'S and 148°53'E. However,the coordinates recorded are several miles off-shore, in 50 fathoms (91m) of water. It has been variously suggested that Cook was deceived by a cloud bank, a compass error, or a faulty observation.[5] Margaret Cameron-Ash, however, claims that Cook deliberately falsified his charts and coordinates in order to hide the existence of Bass Strait for reasons of military and colonial policy.[6] Those claims have been vigorously challenged as lacking in any sound evidence.[7][8]
Nevertheless, it is likely that Cook's "Point of land" was not today's Point Hicks, and lies somewhat to the south-west.[9]
The plaque on the landward side of the obelisk at Point Hicks, Victoria, Australia.
At the end of 1797, George Bass sailed past the area in an open whale-boat and was unable to identify the point.[10] Although Matthew Flinders sailed past the area in 1798–99 and again in 1802–03, the coastal area near Point Hicks was always out of Flinders' visual range. When drawing his chart, Flinders relied on Bass's observations, thus omitting Point Hicks. The name Point Hicks was still being used on some maps[11] up until 1840.
The first use of the name Cape Everard has been attributed to hydrographerJohn Lort Stokes, who surveyed the coast in the Beagle in 1843.[12] It was presumed he named it after fellow naval officer James Everard Home.[13] Stokes' maps do not record the name, but many secondary sources attribute its introduction to him. The first known map showing Cape Everard was made in 1852 and published in 1853, by surveyor George Douglas Smythe.[14] If he coined the name, then, according to one theory, he may have been referring to William Everard, a South Australian Commissioner of Crown Lands.[citation needed] The name Cape Everard was adopted after 1853 and was used until 1970, when the location was renamed Point Hicks.[15]
Despite the use of the name Cape Everard to designate the promontory, Cook's original name of Point Hicks was recorded on an obelisk-shaped monument erected by the Australian Government on the site in 1924.[16][13]:n30 The inscription on the landward side of the monument reads:[17]
"Lieutenant James Cook, R.N. Of the Endeavour, First Sighted Australia Near This Point, Which He Named Point Hicks After Lieutenant Zachary Hicks Who First Saw the Land. April 19th (Ship's Log Date). April 20th (Calendar Date). 1770." On the seaward side of the monument is a plaque listing the "Ship's Company of H.M. Bark Endeavour April 20th 1770".[13]:n30[18]
In the 1930s, the Australian businessman and philanthropist, Russell Grimwade, commissioned stone to be quarried from Cape Everard and shipped to Great Ayton in Yorkshire. It was used to create a replica monument with an identical plaque, which was placed at the site of the home of Captain Cook's parents, after Grimwade had arranged for the home to be dismantled and reconstructed in Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne, in 1934.
Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer and naval officer famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean and to New Zealand and Australia in particular. He made detailed maps of Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific, during which he achieved the first recorded European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands, and the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.
1770 (MDCCLXX) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar, the 1770th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 770th year of the 2nd millennium, the 70th year of the 18th century, and the 1st year of the 1770s decade. As of the start of 1770, the Gregorian calendar was 11 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
The maritime European exploration of Australia consisted of several waves of European seafarers who sailed the edges of the Australian continent. Dutch navigators were the first Europeans known to have explored and mapped the Australian coastline. The first documented encounter was that of Dutch navigator Willem Janszoon, in 1606. Dutch seafarers also visited the west and north coasts of the continent, as did French explorers.
Bass Strait is a strait separating the island state of Tasmania from the Australian mainland. The strait provides the most direct waterway between the Great Australian Bight and the Tasman Sea, and is also the only maritime route into the economically prominent Port Phillip Bay.
HMS Endeavour was a British Royal Navy research vessel that Lieutenant James Cook commanded to Australia and New Zealand on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771.
Broken Bay, a semi-mature tide-dominated drowned valley estuary, is a large inlet of the Tasman Sea located about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Sydney central business district on the coast of New South Wales, Australia; being one of the bodies of water that separate greater Metropolitan Sydney from the Central Coast. Broken Bay is the first major bay north of Sydney Harbour.
New Holland is a historical European name for mainland Australia.
Botany Bay, an open oceanic embayment, is located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 13 km (8 mi) south of the Sydney central business district. Its source is the confluence of the Georges River at Taren Point and the Cooks River at Kyeemagh, which flows 10 km (6 mi) to the east before meeting its mouth at the Tasman Sea, midpoint between the suburbs of La Perouse and Kurnell. The northern headland of the entrance to the bay from the Tasman Sea is Cape Banks and, on the southern side, the outer headland is Cape Solander and the inner headland is Sutherland Point.
Point Danger is a headland, located at Coolangatta on the southern end of the Gold Coast on the east coast of Australia. Separated by Snapper Rocks and Rainbow Bay to the west, with Duranbah Beach and the Tweed River mouth to the south, present-day Point Danger has also indicated the border between New South Wales and Queensland, Australia, since 1863.
Cape Howe is a coastal headland in eastern Australia, forming the south-eastern end of the Black-Allan Line, a portion of the border between New South Wales and Victoria.
Ram Head or since 1970 Rame Head is a coastal headland in eastern Victoria, Australia. It is within the Croajingolong National Park.
Cape Hawke is a coastal headland in Australia on the New South Wales coast, just south of Forster/Tuncurry and within the Booti Booti National Park.
Point Lookout is a headland, small coastal town and locality on the eastern coast of North Stradbroke Island (Minjerribah), Redland City, Queensland, Australia. At the 2021 census, the locality of Point Lookout had a population of 785 people.
Zachary Hicks was a Royal Navy officer, second-in-command on Lieutenant James Cook's first voyage to the Pacific and the first among Cook's crew to sight mainland Australia. A dependable officer who had risen swiftly through the ranks, Hicks conducted liaison and military duties for Cook, including command of shore parties in Rio de Janeiro and the kidnapping of a Tahitian chieftain in order to force indigenous assistance in the recovery of deserters. Hicks' quick thinking while in temporary command of HMS Endeavour also saved the lives of Cook, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander when they were attacked by Māori in New Zealand in November 1769.
Captain Matthew Flinders was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land, a title he regarded as being "more agreeable to the ear" than previous names such as Terra Australis.
The Baudin expedition of 1800 to 1803 was a French expedition to map the coast of New Holland. Nicolas Baudin was selected as leader in October 1800. The expedition started with two ships, Géographe, captained by Baudin, and Naturaliste captained by Jacques Hamelin, and was accompanied by nine zoologists and botanists, including Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, François Péron and Charles-Alexandre Lesueur as well as the geographer Pierre Faure.
The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The aims of this first expedition were to observe the 1769 transit of Venus across the Sun, and to seek evidence of the postulated Terra Australis Incognita or "undiscovered southern land".
The Bicentenary of James Cook in Australia was commemorated in Australia in 1970. The British explorer Lieutenant James Cook charted the east coast of Australia in 1770, and claimed the eastern seaboard of the continent for the British Crown. It was not considered the official bicentenary of Australia, but rather the bicentenary of the first mapping of the eastern coastline.
Hervey Bay is a bay of the Coral Sea in the Bundaberg Region and Fraser Coast Region of Queensland, Australia. It is known for its whale watching.
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