3 Joseph Banks – In Australia
In April 1770, after three months sailing west, the then unknown east coast of Australia
was sighted, near the eastern extremity of Victoria at Point Hicks: Banks wrote:
With the first daylight this morn the Land was seen, at 10 it was pretty plainly to be observed;
it made in sloping hills, covered in part with trees or bushes but interspersed with large
tracts of sand.In the afternoon the crew saw smoke in several places which led them to believe the
country was inhabited. Sailing northward for almost ten days the Endeavour could not
find a harbour or safe place to land. An attempt to land near present day Wollongong,
had to be aborted because the surf made the landing too risky. Finally they rounded a
Cape and found a sheltered anchorage:
The land this morn appeared cliffy and barren without wood. An opening appearing like a
harbour was seen and we stood directly in for it. A small smoke arising from a very barren
place we directed our glasses that way and we soon saw about 10 people, who on our
approach left the fire and retired to a little eminence where they could conveniently see the
ship.When Cook’s party first came ashore their arrival was contested by two Aborigines
who threw spears at them until wounded by gunfire. In the following days there were
other encounters with the Aborigines who at times appeared threatening, waving their
spears at the intruders but avoiding any direct contact. Even trinkets such as beads,
ribbons and cloth which they tossed to children cowering in a shelter were ignored.
Cloth and beads appeared to be of no practical use and they were still lying on the
ground the following day, prompting Cook to observe that ‘all they seemed to want is
for us to be gone’. Banks describes the landscape and the colourful birds of this new
land which were found to be good eating:
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