Point Hicks Lighthouse

For decades, controversy raged about Point Hicks, formerly known as Cape Everard. Was it the site of Lieutenant James Cook’s first sighting of Australia’s east coast in April 1770, or not? Sailing in the Endeavour from New Zealand, Cook, steering westward, came upon a rocky cape first sighted by his second-in-command, Zachary Hicks. Cook called the promontory Point Hicks, but the name eventually fell from use, as on later voyages, ships’ captains could not find the point at the position Cook recorded – which is, in fact, in the open sea.

The site was renamed Cape Everard in 1852, but for ensuing decades the historical intrigue surrounding Cape Everard/Point Hicks was hotly debated by admirals, hydrographers, Britain’s Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Australian Historical Society.

In 1970, then Victorian Premier Henry Bolte decided that the bicentenary of Cook’s first sighting of the Australian coast was a good time to set the record straight, and Cape Everard reverted to the present-day Point Hicks.

A narrow gravel road winds