Today celebrates the 250 anniversary of the landing of Captain James Cook on the shores of Botany Bay. However, land had been sighted 10 days earlier by Lieutenant Zachary Hicks on the morning of 19 April 1770. The point sighted by Hicks was named Point Hicks and is in the South East corner of what is now Victoria. A great shame that Lt. Hicks is not more widely recognised for being the first Englishman to sight what was to become the nation of Australia. Captain Cook, son of a farm worker, was one of the few men who joined the Navy in the 18th century as an ordinary seaman and rose through the ranks. He had earlier served as a seaman on merchant ships. Captain (later Admiral) Arthur Phillip (first governor of New South Wales) had also joined the Navy as a lowly apprentice. Whereas Cook had joined in 1755 aged 27 Phillip joined in 1753 when he was only 15. Cook showed great navigational and mapping skills and within two years was promoted to ship’s master and in May 1768 he was further promoted to the rank of lieutenant and given command of the bark Endeavour. In 1769, the planet Venus was due to pass in front of the Sun, a rare event visible only in the southern hemisphere. The British government decided to send an expedition to observe the phenomenon. A more secret motive was to search for the fabled southern continent. Cook was chosen as commander of the Whitby-built HMS Endeavour. Those on board included astronomer Charles Green and botanist Joseph Banks. The expedition left Plymouth in August 1768 and sailed to Brazil and around Cape Horn, reaching Tahiti in April 1769. After the astronomical observations were completed, Cook sailed south to 40°S, but failed to find any land. He then headed for New Zealand, which he circumnavigated, establishing that there were two main islands. From New Zealand he sailed to what is now Australia (then termed New Holland), which he first sighted in April 1770. He landed at Botany Bay and named it New South Wales claiming it for Britain. He then charted the eastern coast with Banks collecting many botanical specimens. The expedition nearly ended in disaster when the Endeavour struck the Great Barrier Reef, but it was eventually dislodged and repaired and from there it sailed around Cape York through Torres Strait to Batavia (Jakarta, Indonesia), in what was then the Dutch East Indies. In Batavia and on the last leg of the voyage one-third of the crew died of malaria and dysentery. Cook and the other survivors finally reaching England in July 1771. On Cook's third voyage in 1779 he explored the island of Hawaii and, due to an altercation, was stabbed by natives and killed. Accordingly, he never saw the eventual settlement of the land he had discovered. Now, whilst it is true that Cook did not discover the land we call Australia and that others before him had landed on its shores, he was the first person to extensively chart the eastern coast of Australia. He was also the first European to sight and to land on many of the places he charted. After he had left, stories would have been told and passed on through generations of Aboriginals about the strange  craft that brought strange people to the shores of their land. Some may therefore have recognised the appearance of these strange boats 18 years later when the First Fleet of 11 ships and 1480 people arrived. This time, the newcomers were not to visit or explore, but to stay and, as a consequence, the lifestyle of the Aboriginal peoples would come to an end as European settlers moved throughout the land. If Captain Cook had never landed in Australia, undoubtedly the French would have claimed it for themselves. Whatever the case, and despite the massive disruption caused to the original inhabitants, the arrival of the Endeavour meant that the country to be called ‘Australia’ was set on the pathway to becoming one of the great civilisations of the modern world. Today 250 years following Cook’s landing on our shores, we remember, not only the lasting disruption to the original inhabitants, but also the huge developments that took place so quickly after that landing, to create the Australia that we know today. An Australia in which all citizens enjoy equal status and have the right to free education, free healthcare and social security support. Any citizen, of age, can vote and stand for parliament or local council. This is because, whatever their race, their religion or social standing, all Australians are equal under the Crown and all enjoy the rule of law which came to this country with the planting of the British flag on Australian soil. Well may we say, Thank you James Cook. Philip Benwell National Chair 29 April, 2020   Please share with others who may wish to join in saying 'thank you'.. Australian Monarchist League http://www.monarchist.org.au/