Captain James CookPrint Page

Cook`s Cottage commemorates Captain James Cook and was presented to Melbourne by Mr Russell Grimwade as a centenary gift. The statue outside the cottage was originally commissioned by the Endeavour Hills Housing Estate and sculpted by Marc Clark in 1973. In 1997 the statue was donated to the City of Melbourne and placed outside Cook`s Cottage in July of the same year.

James Cook, was an English explorer, navigator and cartographer, who rose to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy.  He was the first person to map Newfoundland, and he made three voyages to the Pacific Ocean, during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as making the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.

A link with some of the most important phases of Australia's historical beginnings has been acquired by Victoria under the stimulus received from the forthcoming Centenary. This relic is the cottage at Great Ayrton (Yorkshire) in which Captain Cook lived us a child, and in which he often stayed between his voyages. Through the agency of the Agent-General (Mr. R. Linton) the Victorian Government has arranged the purchase of the cottage and its demolition and transportation to Victoria.

The real credit for the purchase belongs to Mr. Russell Grimwade, who offered to defray the cost of the purchase (£800) and the subsequent transportation and re-erection of the cottage. The appropriateness of the cottage being erected in Victoria lies in the fact that it was on the coastline of Victoria that Captain Cook obtained his first glimpse of Australia, he sighted land at Cape Everard and anchored there, afterwards sailing for miles to the west along the coast before he turned and sailed east and north to land at Botany Bay. The cottage which Mr. Grimwade has bought was built in 1755. It is of brick and stone, and it contains five rooms. On the upper story are some of the original floors and rafters, and in one room one of the original fire places is still intact.

The cottage having been obtained, the question has arisen-where shall it be put? Some say that it should be erected on the Domain in the approximate neighbourhood of the Shrine of Remembrance; others suggest the Fitzroy Gardens, and others again have different views on the subject.
Australasian (Melbourne), 8 July 1933.

The transport of the historic cottage of Captain Cook from England to Melbourne has now been completed, and the consignment reached Melbourne last week. Novel methods have been adopted to preserve from souvenir hunters the stones of the cottage. Huge boxes containing each stone necessary to build the house were guarded by two men during the weekend, and now an iron fence,with barbed wire entanglements has been erected. The work of erecting the cottage, which was presented to Melbourne by Mr. Russell Grimwade as a Centenary gift, will be begun this week, and it is expected that the concrete foundation will be completed in a few days' time. The site of the cottage will be in Fitzroy Gardens.
Henty Observer and Culcairn Shire Register (NSW), 20 April 1934.

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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