Myth

Sea fairing Yorkshire man Captain James Cook, after carrying out an extensive journey in the pursuit of science, then went on to score a double whammy and discovered Australia (and in some versions New Zealand as well).

Reality

Cooks famous journey of discovery was on the HM Bark Endeavour where he was only ranked as Lieutenant in the Royal Navy and sadly to add to the lack of score both Australia and New Zealand was been discovered by Dutchman Abel Tasman in 1642-1643, some one hundred years prior to Cooks arrival.

The first undisputed recorded European sighting of the Australian continent was made by the Dutch navigator Willem Jansz, who sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in 1606.

During the 17th century, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines of what they called New Holland.

Tags: James Cook, Australia, Captain Cook