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Cook's claim of New South Wales

When
1770
Where
Eastern coast of New Holland
Episodes
1

In 1770, Captain James Cook charted the eastern coast of New Holland and claimed the explored territory for Great Britain. The provided sources confirm the 1770 claim and the April 1770 sighting of Point Hicks, but do not support the specific naming of New South Wales or an exact claim date.

Episodes

  1. 1770 · Eastern coast of New HollandClaim of Eastern Coast

    Cook charted the eastern coast of New Holland and claimed it for Great Britain in 1770.

Background and detail

Background. Captain James Cook, a British Royal Navy officer and explorer, led the first scientific voyage aboard HMS Endeavour from 1768 to 1771. The expedition's public goal was to observe the transit of Venus, but it also involved extensive exploration of the Pacific, including the eastern coast of Australia.

The Claim. In April 1770, Cook and his crew became the first Europeans to encounter Australia's eastern coastline. In 1770, Cook charted the unmapped coast and claimed the entire explored coastline as British territory. The sources date the sighting to April 1770 and the claim to 1770, without specifying the exact timing of the claim relative to the arrival.

People involved

Sources

  1. New South Wales Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-16
  2. James Cook Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-22

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.