COOK'S LANDING IN AUSTRALIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2359, 11 May 1899, Page 17

COOK'S LANDING IN AUSTRALIA.

DEDICATION OF THE LANDING PLACE. SYDNEY, May 7. Kurnell, in Botany Bay, the first landing place of Captain Cook, was yesterday dedicated. The public ceremony was performed by the Governor in the presence of a brilliant gathering. One hundred and twenty-five years ago Captain Cook unfurled the British flag at the spot, and 18 years later Governor Phillip performed % similar ceremony. Yesterday, for the

third time, Admiral Pearson unfurled the flag, H.M.S. Goldfinch firing a salute.

Notwithstanding the fact that Kurnell is the spot where Captain Cook landed, and the" site of the first Australian settlement, very few people, speaking comparatively (says the Sydney Telegraph), know anything of the details of its location. Everyone knows that Captain Cook landed at Botany Bay, hut Botany Bay is a big place. One reason probably why so little is heard or known of Kurnell is the fact that none of the works commonly known dealing with the landing of Cook mention the name. There is a pamphlet in existence which gives a most complete account of the circumstances attending the landing, and which refers to Kurnell, and gives the origin of the name, but it is very difficult to obtain. There is not even a copy obtainable in the Public Library. From Sydney there are two or three ways of getting to Kurnell. The most direct is to drive along the Bunnerong road to La Perouse, and then take a boat across the mouth of the bay. From La Perouse Kairnell is distant exactly a mile. Capes Banks and Solanrler, the northern and southern heads of Botany Bay, named after two of Cook's associates on the Endeavour, are quite close to the spot where the historic landing was made.