Botany Bay

-33.98333333151.183333333Coordinates: 33° 59′ 0″ S, 151° 11′ 0″ E

Botany Bay (German Botanikbucht) is a large bay in the urban area of Sydney, about seven kilometres south of the Central Business District (city centre). On 29 April 1770, it was the scene of the first British landing on the east coast of Australia by James Cook.

The Portuguese had already visited the continent several times in the 16th century, the Dutch first landed in 1606. When Cook arrived in Botany Bay, he was on his first circumnavigation of the world with the Endeavour. He made the first accurate surveys of the bay and Australia's east coast, some of which were used until the mid-20th century.

Initially, the bay was named Stingray Bay, because large quantities of stingrays were caught here to supplement the supplies. The today's name, in German approximately: Botany Bay, the bay owes to the fact that the expedition financier and botanist Sir Joseph Banks and his draughtsman Daniel Solander, the natural scientists of the expedition, were downright euphoric about the variety of plants found. Cook therefore also named the boundaries of the bay Cape Banks (N) and Point Solander (S). The two headlands and the adjacent land form the small Botany Bay National Park, the south side of which contains memorials to the landing and discovery in 1770.

Despite Cook's recommendation to the government in London, the landing of deported British convicts from 1788 onwards did not take place in Botany Bay, but in the bay to the north, later named Port Jackson.

Shortly after the arrival of the First Fleet, a French expedition under Jean-François de La Pérouse arrived in Botany Bay. In his honour, a district of Sydney on the north side of the bay bears his name.

Today, the bay is home to the filled-in container port of Port Botany, an oil refinery and Australia's largest airport, Kingsford Smith International Airport. Among other things, the film Mad Max 3 was shot in the dunes on the south side.

The urban area north of the bay is called Botany Bay City.

Trivia

In the SciFi series Star Trek the name Botany Bay is used for the spaceship Khans (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Starship Enterprise, season 1, episode 22: The Sleeping Tiger).

The lyrics of the Irish folk song "Fields of Athenry" read: "As that prison ship sailed out against the sky; sure she'll wait and hope and pray, for her love in Botany Bay". These lines refer to a woman whose husband was sentenced to deportation to Australia for stealing grain during the Irish famine of the mid-19th century.

Bicentennial Monument commemorating the landing of the First Fleet under Arthur Phillip in 1788.