JCU history lecturer sheds new light on Captain Cook’s first voyage to discover Australia
Home grown research has revealed new dynamics to Captain James Cook’s famous first voyage on the HMS Endeavour to discover Australia in 1770.
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HOME grown research has revealed new dynamics to Captain James Cook’s famous first voyage on the HMS Endeavour to explore Australia in 1770.
James Cook University history lecturer Dr Claire Brennan has devoted the last seven years of her life to shedding new light on Australia’s colonial history.
The National Library of Australia provided Dr Brennan with valuable resources for the study with the digitisation of Captain Cook’s journals providing high quality images of the pages and transcripts.
Dr Brennan’s close reading of the journals of Captain Cook and botanist Joseph Banks revealed a new truth behind the discovery and exploration of Australia.
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“I think it is important to recognise the difference between what cook did and the myths that Australians have constructed around him,” Dr Brennan said.
“Cooks first voyage was very successful but in part of because of who else was on the ship.”
The research involved the collaboration of international ship reconstructionists and academic historians.
The publication of the research coincides with the 250th anniversary of Cook’s landing in Australia in 2020.
Dr Brennan said the journals also offered rare glimpses of the animals that were carried on the HMS Endeavour.
“I am passionate about animal history and animals are just so much part of everyday life in this period that they don’t often get mentioned,” she said.
“The animals tend to only get mentioned when they are swept overboard, or get in caught in grass fires, or otherwise die or require work done to keep them alive.”
James Cook University Library senior liaison librarian Claire Ovaska said Dr Brennan’s new research was a testament to preserving historical resources.
“I look at historians like Claire Brennan as treasure hunters and through libraries and librarians they track down these interesting resources,” she said.
“(They) have the discipline and framework to be able to tell a story that is of relevance to us in this time and place.”
Dr Brennan’s article ‘The physical Endeavour: How a wooden ship shaped Cook’s first voyage’ can be accessed in the Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society.
Originally published as JCU history lecturer sheds new light on Captain Cook’s first voyage to discover Australia