On 19 April 1770, officer of the watch, Lieutenant Zachary Hicks, sighted land and alerted Captain Cook. Cook made out low sandhills which he named Point Hicks, although he did not yet know whether they formed part of an island or a continent.
Cook went on to chart the east coast of what was then known as New Holland, and claimed it for Great Britain under the name of New South Wales.
Can you imagine what life was like back then? They had only recently worked out that the world wasn't flat. There was land we didn't even know about.
We take it for granted that the countries we know today have always been there, and they were, we just didn't know they were. It must have been an amazing time.
But then I guess most people would not have even been aware all this was going on. There were no newspapers or internet for the everyday Joe. Maybe the rich people knew what was going on, but they were probably too busy being socialites.
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