NSWPort & river
Kurnell
Where the Endeavour came ashore.
1770Endeavour crew lands at Botany Bay
WHAT STARTED IT
Kurnell lies on the southern shore of Botany Bay, where the Endeavour anchored in April 1770 and its crew landed and searched for water. Two Aboriginal men opposed the landing, and Cook fired small shot that struck one of them.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
The first land grant, Alpha Farm, was made in 1815, and in 1861 the peninsula became part of Thomas Holt’s estate, which stretched from Botany Bay to Port Hacking. Reached only by a sandy track or by launch from La Perouse, Kurnell in the 1930s was a small settlement of cottages and camps whose numbers doubled at weekends.
TURNING POINTS
1770The Endeavour’s crew lands and stays eight days, collecting plants and charting the bay.
1815James Birnie receives a 700-acre grant and names it Alpha Farm.
1822The Philosophical Society of Australasia fixes a brass tablet to the rock where Cook and Banks landed.
1861Thomas Holt buys an estate running from Botany Bay to Port Hacking, including Cook’s landing place.
1936About 150 people live permanently in Kurnell’s cottages and camps, with no made road to the village.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A small village beside Kamay Botany Bay National Park and Cook’s landing place. The former oil refinery site now operates as a fuel import terminal.