Botany Bay
From Freepedia
Image:Botanybaybicentennialmonument.JPG Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, a few kilometres south of the central business district. It was the site of a landing by James Cook of the HMS Endeavour that marked the beginning of Britain's interest in, and eventual colonisation of, Australia (Captain Cook's map of Botany Bay). In modern times it is chiefly notable for being the site of Kingsford Smith International Airport, Australia's largest. The land around the headlands of the bay is protected as Botany Bay National Park. Towra Point Nature Reserve is also within Botany Bay.
In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip led the First Fleet into the bay on 19 January 1788 to found a penal colony there. Finding that the sandy infertile soil of the site in fact rendered it most unsuitable for settlement, Phillip decided instead to move to the excellent natural harbor of Port Jackson to the north. On 26 January, while still anchored in the bay, the British encountered the French exploratory expedition of Jean-François de La Pérouse. Panicked by the thought that the French might beat them to it, the colonists sailed that afternoon to found a settlement at Sydney Cove. Despite the move, for many years afterward, the Australian penal colony would be referred to as "Botany Bay" in England - in convict ballads, for instance.
The good supply of fresh water in the area led to the expansion of its population in the 19th century.
The small Mascot Aerodrome at Botany developed into Sydney (Kingsford Smith) Airport.
Port Botany
- Port Botany was built in 1930 and is now a container terminal.
Pop culture
- The SS Botany Bay was the name of a fictional sleeper ship seen in the Star Trek episode "Space Seed." This ship was referenced, though unseen, in the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan when Pavel Chekov found a fragment of it and famously read "Botany Bay...oh, no!"
- The Botany Bay was a fictional whaling ship featured in the film Free Willy 3: The Rescue, probably named in reference to the above.
