Gday...

1770  -     Lieutenant James Cook's "The Endeavour" runs aground and nearly sinks on the Great Barrier Reef. 

Following Lieutenant James Cook's observations in Tahiti of the transit of Venus across the sun, he sailed southwest, where he explored and mapped the coastline of New Zealand. He then continued west, making the first European sighting of Australia's eastern coast in April 1770. Claiming the continent for England, Cook sailed up the coast, charting and naming points of interest as he went.

Cape Tribulation, in far North Queensland, was so named by Cook after his ship, the "Endeavour" struck the reef and nearly sank. The Endeavour managed to stay afloat for another week whilst the crew sought desperately for land, eventually sighting the harbour formed by the Endeavour River. The ship was landed on 10 June 1770, and Cook spent almost two months repairing it, thus giving rise to the fledgling township of Cooktown.

The harbour was originally named the Charco, but Cook renamed it Endeavour when he departed on 4 August 1770. At that stage, the town had developed into nothing more than a tent village. The spot where Cook beached his damaged ship is marked by a stone monolith, called Cook's Pillar, on the banks of the Endeavour River. 

1838  -     28 Aborigines are massacred by vengeful stockmen at Myall Creek. 

Australian history is dotted with instances where Aborigines have been massacred, but their deaths have gone unrecorded. The Myall Creek massacre stands alone as one in which there was some attempt to bring the perpetrators to justice.

On 10 June 1838, a gang of stockmen, heavily armed, rounded up between 40 and 50 Aboriginal women, children and elderly men at Myall Creek Station, near Bingara which is not far from Inverell in New South Wales. 28 Aborigines were murdered. It was believed that the massacre was payback for the killing of several colonists in the area, yet most of those massacred were women and children.

At a trial held on 15 November 1838, twelve Europeans were charged with murder but acquitted. Another trial was held on November 26, during which the twelve men were charged with the murder of just one Aboriginal child. They were found guilty, and seven of the men were hanged in December under the authority of Governor George Gipps. As a result of the hangings, the government received a huge backlash from people in Sydney, who saw the Aborigines as mere pests that deserved to be exterminated. Colonists who were outraged at the massacre of Aboriginal people were largely in the minority.

On 10 June 2000, a memorial to the Aborigines of Myall Creek was dedicated. An annual memorial service has been held on 10th June at the site of the massacre ever since.

1851  -     Sydney Ducks gang member John Jenkins is lynched by San Franciscan vigilantes.

During the convict era, between 1788 and the end of transportation in 1868, over 174,000 men, woman and children were sent to Australia. Once pardoned or given a ticket-of-leave, many ex-convicts chose to remain in Australia. However, prospects were sometimes grim for those who chose to stay, some finding it impossible to earn a respectable living with the stigma of their convict past hanging over them. Nor could they return to their families in England, for the same reasons. Thus, when the goldrush began in California in 1848, many ex-convicts made their way to San Francisco.

With the population explosion in southern California, crime became rampant, particularly as many immigrants failed to find their fortune in gold and resorted to crime in order to survive. Criminals began to congregate in San Francisco, east of modern day Chinatown, forming gangs. Among the most notorious were those dominated by Australians, ticket of leave and escaped convicts. By 1849, so many were gathering on the Barbary Coast that it was commonly called 'Sydney Town', populated by gangs such as the 'Sydney Ducks' and 'Sydney Coves'. The Sydney Ducks were California's first known gang.

On 3 May 1851, the Sydney Ducks were blamed for a fire which broke out following a severe earthquake on May 1. Looting was rife, and blame centred on the Australians when a man recognised as a Sydney-Towner was seen running from a paint shop shortly before it exploded in flames. The area remained notorious for its vicious crimes until Sydney Duck member John Jenkins was lynched by vigilantes on 10 June 1851. Following his hanging, the population of Sydney Town dropped significantly as many Australians fled the area.

Cheers - John