Point Hicks

Point Hicks (Tolywiarar)
Cape Everard
Headland
Name origin: In honour of Lieutenant Zachary Hickes
Country Australia
State Victoria
Regions South East Corner (IBRA), East Gippsland
Local government area Shire of East Gippsland
Building Point Hicks Lighthouse
Coordinates 37°48′11″S 149°16′32″E / 37.80306°S 149.27556°ECoordinates: 37°48′11″S 149°16′32″E / 37.80306°S 149.27556°E
Discovered by Zachary Hickes
 - date 19 April 1770
National parks Croajingolong NP,
Point Hicks Marine NP
Location of Point Hicks in Victoria
[1]

[2]

Point Hicks or Tolywiarar (formerly called Cape Everard), is a coastal headland in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, located within the Croajingolong National Park. The point is marked by the Point Hicks Lighthouse that faces the Tasman Sea.

Etymology

The traditional custodians of the land surrounding Point Hicks are the Australian Aboriginal Bidhawal and Gunaikurnai peoples who called the point Tolywiarar.[1][3]

Point Hicks is where, on 19 April 1770, the continent of Australia was first sighted by the men on Captain Cook's Endeavour voyage. Cook records that it was Lieutenant Zachary Hickes who first saw land, and Cook named the point after him.[4] Hickes spelt his name with an "e" but he was recorded as "Hicks" in Endeavour‍‍ '​‍s log.[5] When George Bass sailed past the area at the end of 1797 he was unable to identify the point,[6] and it therefore didn't appear on the charts Matthew Flinders produced of their voyages, and the name fell into disuse.

The point instead came to be known as Cape Everard. The first use of that name is attributed to hydrographer John Lort Stokes who surveyed the coast in the Beagle in 1843. It's presumed he named it after fellow naval officer James Everard Home.[2] Stokes' maps don't record the name, but many secondary sources attribute its introduction to him.

The first known chart showing Everard was by surveyor George Douglas Smythe, made in 1852 and published in 1853. If he coined the name, then according to one theory he may have been referring to William Everard, commissioner of crown lands (though no record of that Everard has been found). In any case the name Cape Everard was used from that time up until 1970. The actual latitude and longitude he gave (38°0′S 148°53′E / 38.000°S 148.883°E) is a location many miles out to sea.

Photo of plaque
The plaque on the landward side of the obelisk at Point Hicks, Victoria, Australia.

Despite the common use of Point Everard to designate the promontory, the earlier appellation was recorded on an obelisk-shaped monument erected by the Australian Government on the site in 1924.[7] [2]:n30 The inscription on the landward side of the monument reads:[8]

"Lieutenant James Cook, R.N. Of the Endeavour, First Sighted Australia Near This Point, Which He Named Point Hicks After Lieutenant Zachary Hicks Who First Saw the Land. April 19th (Ship's Log Date). April 20th (Calendar Date). 1770."

On the seaward side of the monument is a plaque listing the "Ship's Company of H.M. Bark Endeavour April 20th 1770".[2]:n30

The name Point Hicks was re-established as part of Cook's bicentenary. Victorian Premier Henry Bolte proclaimed the new name in a ceremony at the point on 20 April 1970.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Point Hicks: 17439". Vicnames. Government of Victoria. 2 May 1966. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Haldane, Robert (2001). "A Beacon on the Wilderness Coast: The Story of Point Hicks (Cape Everard)". Gippsland Heritage Journal (25). Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  3. ↑ "Point Hicks Marine National Park". Parks Victoria. Government of Victoria. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  4. ↑ Cook, James (1 May 2005). Wharton, W. J. L, ed. Captain Cook's Journal During His First Voyage Round the World Made in H. M. Bark "Endeavour", 1768-71 (e-book). Project Gutenberg.
  5. ↑ Beaglehole, J.C., ed. (1968). The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vol. I:The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771. Cambridge University Press. p. 591. OCLC 223185477.
  6. ↑ Flinders, Matthew (17 July 2004). A Voyage to Terra Australis (e-book). Volume I. Project Gutenberg.
  7. ↑ Lipscombe, Trevor (August 2014). "Hydrographers v Historians — the truth about Point Hicks". Map Matters (Australasian Hydrographic Society) (24): 4–8. Retrieved 27 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "COOK'S VOYAGE.". The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957) (Melbourne, Vic.: National Library of Australia). 6 November 1924. p. 17. Retrieved 27 September 2013.

External links