Point Hicks

Point Hicks or Tolywiarar (formerly called Cape Everard), is a coastal headland in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, located within the Croajingolong National Park. The point is marked by the Point Hicks Lighthouse that faces the Tasman Sea.

Etymology

The traditional custodians of the land surrounding Point Hicks are the Australian Aboriginal Bidhawal and Gunaikurnai peoples who called the point Tolywiarar.

The coastal area near Point Hicks lies on the north-eastern coast of Victoria, Australia. It was the first land ever sighted and recorded by Europeans on the East Coast of Australia (then known as New Holland). The sighting took place at first light on 20 April 1770 by Lieutenant Zachary Hicks aboard James Cook's Endeavour. This was the first of Cook's three voyages to the Pacific, and the sighting came after 19 days' westward sailing following the Endeavour leaving New Zealand on its homeward journey. Cook recorded in his ship's Journal that it was Hicks who first saw land, and that later that day he (Cook) named a far-off point after Hicks: "I have named it Point Hicks, because Lieutenant Hicks was the first who discover'd this Land.". This was confirmed by Aaron Arrowsmith's 1798 Chart of the Pacific Ocean, clearly showing Cook's Point Hicks. (Hicks did not survive the return voyage but died on board soon after the Endeavour left the Cape.)