Where Cook Landed

On Norfolk Is.

THIS cairn, 18 feet high and made of local stone, stands on a high place at Duncombe Bay, Norfolk Island, within a few yards of the spot where Captain James Cook landed on October 10,1774, and recorded the discovery of Norfolk Island.

About 1939, the late Captain J.

D. McComish, in the course of his tireless research into South Pacific botany and history, noted that there was no memorial to the dis covery of NI by Cook; and he started a fund for the purpose of providing one, and —after much research—he was able to fix the exact spot of Cook’s landing.

The war interrupted his plan; and then he died; but the project was kept alive by his widow, Mrs.

I. McComish, FRGS; and she was supported by the Australian Terri-

tories Minister (Mr. Hasluck), the NI Administration, the Royal Aus tralian Historical Society, and the NI Public School. The memorial was built at a cost of £2OO.

The memorial, bearing a suitable engraved plate, was unveiled on July 24; and, at the special invita tion of the Administrator (Brigadier Norman) on behalf of the Island Advisory Council, the formal cere mony was performed by Mrs.

McComish. The Administrator, in thanking Mrs. McComish for com ing from Australia to unveil the memorial, paid a special tribute to the work of the late Captain Mc- Comish, and the service he had given to Norfolk Island.

The inscription on the plaque reads; “Captain James Cook, on his second voyage round the world, dis covered and named this island Norfolk Isle, Landing in the vicinity of this point on Oct. 10, 1774.”