Joseph Banks – In Australiaserrata, admiring its red-flowered bottlebrush which typifies the unique flora of the
continent, and they collected three different species of banksia. Banks wrote:
Our collection of plants was now grown so immensely large that it was necessary that some
extraordinary care should be taken of them least they should spoil in the books. I therefore
devoted this day to that business and carried all the drying paper, near 200 Quires of which
the larger part was full, ashore and spreading them upon a sail in the sun kept them in this
manner exposed the whole day, often turning them and sometimes turning the Quires in
which were plants inside out. By this means they came on board at night in very good
condition.
Parkinson sketched nearly a hundred new species of plants, outlining the stem leaf
and flower of as many specimens as possible, while making notes of the colours to be
painted in later. The gum trees were of great significance but unfortunately they did
not make a single drawing of the eucalypts because the conventions of botany in 1770
required that floral specimens be drawn with their blossoms and at this time of year
the gum trees were not in flower.
The Endeavour remained in the bay for a week. The Union flag was flown every
day and an inscription was cut into one of the trees with the name of the Endeavour
and the date of its arrival. Initially, Cook had thought to name it Stingray Bay because
of their abundance in its shallow waters. However, on their last day he wrote:
Sunday 6th. In the evening the yawl returned from fishing having caught two Sting rays
weighing near 600 pounds. The great quantity of New Plants etc. Mr Banks and Dr Solander
collected in this place occasioned me giving it the name of Botany Bay.After a week at Botany Bay the Endeavour sailed out between what is now known
as Cape Banks and Cape Solander and turned north along the coast. For the next
month the botanists were busy drawing and describing their immense collection of
new plants while Cook and his crew mapped the coastline. To undertake their mapping
the Endeavour would anchor about two miles offshore at a good vantage point. From
their fixed anchorage they took bearings of all the visible mountains, headlands and
other geographic features as well as take sun and star shots to calculate latitude and
longitude, before they then sailed on to the next vantage point.
Volcanoes had erupted down the coast of eastern Australia millions of years ago
emitting ash and basalt that enriched the surrounding soils. A remnant volcanic plug,
which Cook named Mount Warning, cautioned him to avoid the rocks jutting out of the
north head of the Tweed River. In southern Queensland remnant volcanic cores stand
above the terrain in what Cook named the Glasshouse Mountains, as they reminded
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