Point Hicks, Victoria: Where Captain Cook sighted Australia in 1770
At Point Hicks in 1770, Australia’s east coast was spotted by Europeans for the first time. An obelisk by the Point Hicks Lighthouse in inside the Croajingolong National Park, East Gippsland, commemorates the sighting on board Lt James Cook’s Endeavour.
Point Hicks is in the far-eastern corner of Victoria, very close to the New South Wales border. It’s inside the Croajingolong National Park in East Gippsland.
Those visiting oblivious might enjoy the moody coastal views from Point Hicks, or perhaps take a photo of the Point Hicks lighthouse. The clued-up, however, will realise they’re standing somewhere hugely important.
The Endeavour at Point Hicks, Victoria
On 20 April 1770, Lt James Cook was sailing the Endeavour in these parts. The crew had witnessed the Transit of Venus, and explored the coast of New Zealand. Now Cook and his crew were onto the secret part of their mission – to find the fabled great southern continent.
Cook was by no means the first European to discover Australia – Dutch ships had been crashing into the west coast for more than a century. Find out about them at the WA Shipwrecks Museum, Fremantle.
Cook is believed, however, to be the first European to discover Australia’s east coast. He would later visit Botany Bay, the Town of 1770, Magnetic Island and Cape Tribulation. But first came this little-known spot on the Victorian coast.
Cook’s sighting of Point Hicks
An extract from Cook’s journal reads: “The Southernmost point of land we had in sight, which bore from us West quarter South, I judged to lay in the Latitude of 38 degrees South and in the Long. of 211 degrees 7 minutes West from the Meridian of Greenwich. I have named it Point Hicks, because Lieutenant Hicks was the first who discovered this Land”.
An obelisk marks Lt Zachary Hicks’ momentous discovery.
However, there is debate over whether this was the exact spot. One theory goes that Hicks spotted a cloud bank, rather than actual land. Another goes that he spotted Mount Raymond further east near the Victorian town of Orbost.
The Point Hicks obelisk replica
Anyone who has been to the village of Great Ayton in North Yorkshire might find the Point Hicks obelisk familiar. In 1934, millionaire Sir Russell Grimwade paid for granite to be quarried at Point Hicks. He then had it shipped to England and had a replica of the obelisk built in the village where Cooks’ parents had lived.
This was to replace the Cooks’ cottage – which Grimwade had dismantled, then shipped to Australia. It was rebuilt brick by brick in Melbourne’s Fitzroy Gardens, where Cooks’ Cottage is now a small museum about Cook. There’s an argument for this being the oldest building in Australia.
More things to do in Victoria
Try a husky dog tour at Mount Baw Baw.
Visit Trentham Falls on the Coliban River near Daylesford.
Go walking at Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island.
Choose from a menu of 101 parmas at the Shamrock Hotel in Echuca.
See Loch Ard Gorge near Port Campbell on the Great Ocean Road.