Australia marks 250th anniversary of James Cook's landing at Botany Bay

Captain Cook

Captain Cook arriving in New South Wales Source: Getty

Two hundred and fifty years ago, two worlds collided: Captain James Cook set foot on Australian soil.


Captain James Cook's diary details his first contact with Indigenous people in Botany Bay.

 

It was a hostile exchange with Cook's party shooting at the locals, as Emeritus Professor at the University of New South Wales John Gascoigne [[GAS-coin]] explains.

 

[[GASCOIGNE 1]]

[[It was a contested landing. He marched forward with his men, tried to speak to the Aborigines on the beach but they didn't understand his language, nor that of Tupaia, who was Polynesian and who had acted as an interpreter in New Zealand.]]


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