Collins Rock "Points of View" Print Page

The public artwork "Points Of View"  celebrates Captain Cook’s first attempted landing place on Australian soil in April 1770. The artwork is located near the original Captain Cook Memorial and overlooks the Woonona Rock Pool. 

The artwork features ceramic tiles and includes digital images of local historical photographs, paintings by significant Australian artists from the Wollongong City Gallery collection, early botanical drawings by Joseph Banks, and quotes from James Cook’s diaries. It also features excerpts from a speech made by indigenous Senator Aden Ridgway on the 22nd May 2005.  Thousands of photos of Northern Illawarra residents were assembled by students at Woonona High to construct images of Captain Cook. 
 

On the afternoon of Saturday, 28 April 1770, a small, two-masted wooden boat (yawl), was hoisted out from the former Whitby collier His Majesty's Bark Endeavour, then under the command of Lieutenant James Cook, Royal Navy. At the time the Endeavour was anchored less than 2 miles off the Illawarra coast near present day Collins Point, Woonona, also known as Collins Rock. The yawl headed towards the shore, with its crew hoping to make contact there with the local Aboriginal people and collect specimens of flora and fauna. On board was Cook, scientists Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, the Polynesian guide Tupia (Tupaia), and three others. Due to the rough surf along the coast that day, the yawl was not able to land. After observing the shoreline close at hand for a couple of hours, the crew returned to the Endeavour. 

Captain James Cook claimed the whole of the east coast of Australia for Great Britain on 22 August 1770, naming eastern Australia, 'New South Wales.'
 

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