Discovery of East Coast

After observing the transit of Venus at Tahiti, Cook visited New Zealand. On the 1st April, the Endeavour Bark sailed west from New Zealand with the intention of finding and surveying the unknown east coast of New Holland. On 17th April, a land bird perched on the rigging. Two days later, Cook made the following entry in his log. "Thursday 19th - at six, saw land extending from N .E. to West at a distance of 5 or 6 leagues - I have named it Point Hicks, because Lieut. Hicks was the first who discovered this land." Actually the date was 20th April, 1770. At that time, the custom when circumnavigating the world was to adjust the date on arrival at the first Eastern port. Cook did this when reaching Batavia. So all dates in this area need to be adjusted. Actually, the situation was more complicated. Time was recorded in three ways on the Endeavour Bark. In Joseph Bank's log, entries were made in CIVIL time, so dates are then advanced by one day. The ship's log had to be entered in SHIP time. These dates are then corrected by advancing twelve hours. Charles Green used ASTRONOMICAL time. His entries are then corrected by retarding twelve hours. Cook sailed north, charting the coast and making landings at several places. Having re-discovered Torres Strait, Cook made sure that this land was separated from New Guinea, and consequently not previously discovered. He landed on a small island off Cape York Peninsular (later called Possession Island) and formally claimed the Eastern half of Australia in the name of George III . Actually until 1827, Britain claimed sovereignty over the Eastern half of the continent only. Point Hicks was later named Cape Everard, and an obelisk is erected there to commemorate the sighting.  

Irvine Green. A.I.A.P writing in 1970 04 DTHS Newsletter