memory
Captain Cook Monument
A simple stone cairn marks one episode in Norfolk Island’s seafaring history.
The story behind the place
Near Norfolk Island’s northern coast, this stone monument commemorates the 1774 landing of James Cook and his officers. Its rough tapering sides stand on a low plinth above a grassy slope. That voyage was not the beginning of the island’s human story: Parks Australia records archaeological evidence of Polynesian seafarers living here between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. The cairn can be read as one marker within that longer history, rather than a claim that the island had no earlier people.
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Read more from the sources
- Parks Australia — Captain Cook Monumentnorfolkislandnationalpark.gov.au
- Parks Australia — Norfolk Island historynorfolkislandnationalpark.gov.au
