Yet the Cook expedition’s brief presence in the beau-
tiful bay that forms the southern gateway to the Great
Barrier Reef on what’s now called the Discovery Coast
might perhaps be better forgotten. For one thing, the
men of Endeavour were stir-crazy after three weeks of
looking at the coast but never making landfall, and when
they fi na l ly d id, m a ny of them celebrated by being dead
drunk from arrival to departure.
Cook wrote in his journal: “Last night some time in
the Middle Watch a very extraordinary affair happend
to M r Or ton my Clerk, he hav ing been d r in k ing in the
Evening, some Malicious person or persons in the Ship
took the advantage of his being drunk and cut off all
the cloaths from off his back, not being satisfied with
this they some time after went into his Cabbin and cut
off a part of both his Ears as he lay asleep in his bed...I
look upon such proceedings as highly dangerous in such
Voyages as this and the greatest insult that could be
offer’d to my authority in this Ship.”
Cook and his botanists, Banks and Solander, along
with some trusted armed men, went briefly ashore and
found nothing much of interest. They shot a bustard that
gave them the best fresh meat they’d had since leaving
England, named the bay Bustard Bay after the delicious
“turkey” and were gone.
Not a lot to celebrate there, you’d think, compared
with the extraordinary natural beauty of this wild stretch
of coast.In the 89 years between Cook’s brief visit and
Queensland being proclaimed a state, the Meerooni were
mostly left to their seasonal circuit of fishing and hunting
camps. European development of central Queensland
was focused on gold to the south and cattle to the north.
But in 1847 the British decided to rename the north-
ern part of New South Wales the colony of “North
Australia” and build its capital at Port Curtis, just along
the coast from Bustard Bay.
The idea was that building the town and garrison
would provide work for pardoned convicts from Van
Diemen’s Land. But the project was a disaster from the
start, and no convicts ever saw Port Curtis. A few years
later, however, pastoral development in the hinterland
led to the creation of a service town and port at the same
location, ironically named Gladstone after the British
politician behind the failed Port Curtis settlement.
This, in turn, led to the building of a lighthouse and
several cottages at Bustard Head. Over time, the workers’
camp at Eurimbula Creek sawmill, near Round Hill
Head, became a haunt for fishermen. Their weekend
drinking parties sometimes shocked the shy South SeaFestival of 1770 event manager Debbie O’Flaherty (at left) with
Captain Cook (Arron Wellsteed) and Samantha Organ, Indigenous
liaison officer for the festival. This year’s festival commemorates
250 years since Captain Cook’s landing at the town.
More info: visitagnes1770.com.au/1770-festival96 Australian Geographic
PHOTO CREDITS, OPPOSITE: NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA; FOLLOWING PAGE: SHUTTERSTOCK