Description:
Monument Track lies in Kamay Botany Bay National Park. This track leads from the point where Prince Charles Parade meets Captain Cook Drive at Kurnell.
400 metres along the track is the sandstone Obelisk with tablets affixed, inscribed (see below).
The monument stands opposite the rock marking the spot where Captain Cook is believed to have landed.
History:
Erected in 1870 by Thomas Holt, at his own expense, to commemorate Cook’s landing 100 years before. Thomas Holt was a Kurnell landowner.
Inscription:
Front:
CAPTAIN COOK
LANDED HERE
28th APRIL, A.D. 1770.
THIS MONUMENT
WAS ERECTED A.D.1870,
BY THE HONORABLE THOMAS HOLT M.L.C.
VICTORIA REGINA. THE EARL OF BELMORE, GOVERNOR &c
Left:
EXTRACT FROM CAPTAIN COOK’S JOURNAL
Saturday 28th April, A.D. 1770
At daybreak we discovered a bay,
and anchored under the south shore
about two miles within the entrance in
sixth fathom water, the south point bearing
S.E, and the north point East.
Latitude 34°S Longitude 208°.37W
Back:
THE LANDING PLACE OF
CAPTAIN COOK
APRIL 28th, 1770
The following brief extracts relating to
the Landing of Captain Cook and his party
on the rock opposite this tablet are taken
from the original MS. Journal of Sir Joseph
Banks, in the Mitchell Library, Sydney:
The Journal records that –
The natives resolutely disputed the landing, “although they were but two, and we thirty or forty at least.”
Parleying with these two continued for about a quarter of an hour. “They remained resolute so a musket was fired over them, the effect of which was that the youngest of the two dropped a bundle of lances on the rock….
He, however, snatched them up again and both renewed their threats and opposition. A musket loaded with small shot was now fired at the eldest of the two who was about 40 yards from the boat, it struck him on the legs but he minded it very little, so another was immediately fired at him, on this he ran up to the house about 100 yards distant and soon returned with a shield. In the meantime we had landed on the rock.”
Several “lances” were immediately thrown and fell among the party. This caused two further discharges of small shot, when, after throwing another lance, the natives fled.
Right:
THIS PLAQUE COMMEMORATES THE
200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE LANDING
OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK
AND THE RE-ENACTMENT OF THIS HISTORIC EVENT
IN THE PRESENCE OF
HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH
AND HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCESS ANNE
29TH April 1970
GPS Coordinates: -34.004667, 151.217556
References:
Cook’s Log, page 1525, vol.21, no.3 (1998)
Website: www.monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/landscape/discovery/display/21766-captain-cook%60slanding-site
Website: www.walkingcoastalsydney.com.au/brochures/documents/L16LoopKurnellHistoric.pdf
Image gallery (click to enlarge)