BOTANY BAY

Description

Essentials about Botany Bay in brief

Most visitors to Sydney and Australia only get a glimpse of Botany Bay during takeoff and landing at the city’s international airport, which is located on the edge of the bay. However, anyone interested in Australia’s history should definitely pay a visit to the bay, which is located only about seven kilometers south of the city center. After all, this is where the beginnings of European settlement on the Australian continent lie.

The history of Botany Bay

The discovery by Captain James Cook

On April 29, 1770, Botany Bay became the scene of the first British landing in Australia by Captain James Cook. The Portuguese had already visited the continent several times in the 16th century, and the Dutch first landed in 1606. When Cook arrived in Botany Bay, he was on his first circumnavigation of the world with his ship Endeavour (a replica of the Endeavour, by the way, can be seen in the Australian National Maritime Museum). Cook made the first accurate surveys of the bay and Australia’s east coast.

Initially, the bay was named Stingray Bay because of the large quantities of stingrays caught, which Cook used to replenish supplies. Botany Bay owes its present name to the fact that the two naturalists on the expedition, botanist Sir Joseph Banks and his draftsman Daniel Solander, were downright euphoric about the plant biodiversity they found (they discovered over 3,000 new plant species). Cook named the two boundaries of the bay after his two crew members – Cape Banks lies to the north of Botany Bay and Point Solander to the south.

The spot on the southern landward headland of the bay where Captain Cook first landed is marked today as Captain Cook’s Landing Place. A monument in the form of a stone obelisk stands here, and the visitor center displays various exhibits that tell more about the history of Botany Bay.

The landing of the first British settlers

In January 1788, 18 years after Captain Cook’s landing, the First Fleet from the United Kingdom arrived on the distant continent. Eleven ships with over 1,000 settlers, including convicts, went ashore here to establish the first British colony. Despite James Cook’s recommendation to the British government in London, the landing of the First Fleet was not in Botany Bay, but in the bay to the north, later named Port Jackson, around which the city of Sydney eventually developed. Two days after the landing, Captain Arthur Phillip planted the British flag in Sydney Cove and claimed the land for the United Kingdom. This event is celebrated every year on January 26 with the so-called Australia Day, the country’s national holiday.

The expedition of Jean-François de Galaup

Another explorer who had also made landfall in Botany Bay in January 1788 was the Frenchman Jean-François de Galaup, Count of La Perouse. However, on one of his many expeditions, the explorer’s ship had mysteriously sunk. The wreck was found many years later in the Solomon Islands. In his memory, the La Perouse Museum is located at the northern cape of Botany Bay and houses a large collection of charts, navigational equipment and relics recovered from the wrecks of La Perouse’s expedition.

Kamay Botany Bay National Park

However, Botany Bay is not only worth a trip for those interested in history. As the name suggests, the bay is also an attractive destination for plant and nature lovers. The beautiful Kamay Botany Bay National Park is a habitat for many native plant species, dozens of bird species as well as a rich underwater world, which is why the bay is also very popular with divers. There are a number of wonderful hiking trails and miles of white sandy beaches.