Mapping the Coast

Lieutenant James Cook was a cartographer, which means that he drew maps. He was extremely good at his job. One of his biggest achievements on the Endeavour voyage was the detailed mapping of the coastlines of New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. As you will see in two of the maps below, he was able to do this very accuately. Cook completed the European mapping of the coastlines of our continent.

While the Endeavour was in Kamay Botany Bay in 1770 Cook spent a great deal of time accurately mapping the bay.

Activity: Your turn to draw a map!

The photograph below is of the famous White Cliffs of Dover in England. When the Endeavour returned to England in 1771, it passed by these cliffs before anchoring about 10 kilometres farther along the coast near a place called Deal, where James Cook left the ship and headed to London to report back to the British Admiralty, after almost three years away.

Use the photograph of the coastline to draw a map. The photograph was taken looking north. Try to imagine what the shape of the coastline might be (where there might be any small bays or small headlands) then imagine you are a bird flying above to help you draw your map.

Can you see the zigzag track going down the cliff, on the left? Can you see the lighthouse on the right? They are 1.5km apart, with the lighthouse very close to being east-northeast of the track. (East-northeast, also written ENE, is halfway between east and northeast.)

Don't forget to include BOLTS on your map:

• Border (draw a neat border around your map)
• Orientation (which way is north?)
• Legend (what do the symbols represent?)
• Title (what is your map showing? Add it to the top of your map)
• Scale (comparing the size of your drawing to real life)

Check out the accuracy of your map against the satellite image below:

Apart from mapping the coastlines of each place they visited, various artists aboard the Endeavour created sketches, drawings and paintings of what they saw on the voyage. Sydney Parkinson was a botanical illustrator so he spent most of his time sketching and painting the plants collected by Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. Alexander Buchan was a landscape artist so he recorded what he saw of the coastlines and various interesting landforms. Herman Sporing and Tupaia also contributed, with Tupaia creating many artworks that featured the people he met. Parkinson and Sporing also helped fill the gap after Alexander Buchan died, just before the Endeavour reached Tahiti, long before they arrived in Kamay Botany Bay.

Activity: Field sketch

In Geography, a field sketch is a basic drawing of something where only the major features or outlines of it are drawn. It is drawn from observation only (no measurements are taken) so it is not drawn to scale.

Using the following image of Kamay Botany Bay today, draw a field sketch that includes the main things you can see.

Activity: Artistic sketch

Find a plant or animal that is native to Australia - in your garden, the local area, a national park, online - or use one of the photographs below.

Try sketching and colouring the plant or animal free-hand and compare your effort to Parkinson's sketches. Don't worry if it isn't perfect - it just proves how talented Parkinson and the other artists on the voyage were!