Botany Bay National Park consists of about 800 acres, and is located at the east end of the Kurnell Peninsula of New South Wales, Australia. The Park is managed by NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service which provides protection to a rich diversity of environments and ecosystems including wetlands, freshwater streams, wet forest and swamps,... as well as cliffs, rock platforms, and dunes, -all of which support a wide range of plants and animals, including many that are endangered.

Botany Bay is the place Captain James Cook and his crew of scientists, botanists, astronomers and artists first landed in Australia. They collected and recorded thousands of natural history specimens, plants and animals, and observed astronomical events. This land offered few resources for settlement, therefore the first settlement was established just to the north; -what is now know as Sydney. This historic area also became the location of the first British penal colony, where felons, the outcast, and the British criminal under-class were disposed of.

Cook was born in Britain in 1728, the son of hard working farmers. By the time he was in his thirties he branched out to become an internationally known naval captain and explorer. Captain Cook learned to survey and draw navigation charts while on an expedition charting the St. Laurent river in Canada. On his initial voyage between 1768 to 1771 he drafted the first accurate maps of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia, including Botany Bay. During his second and third voyages, he continued charting large parts of the North American and North Asian coasts. He discovered new Pacific islands and became the first explorer to cross the Antarctic Circle. Cook earned respect as one of the greatest pioneers of the eighteenth century. His life came to an end when he was killed in Hawaii in 1779 on his third and final journey.

Also noteworthy is you may recognize some of my pictures as familiar places if you have seen the motorcycle chase scene at the end of Mission Impossible 2, with Tom Cruise and Scott Dougray.