View source for Botany Bay

{{Short description|Open ocean bay in Sydney, Australia}}
{{About||the urban area of Sydney|Botany, New South Wales||Botany Bay (disambiguation)}}
{{Use Australian English|date=January 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
{{Infobox body of water
| name               = Botany Bay
| native_name        = 
| native_name_lang   = 
| other_name         = Kamay/Gamay, Sting Ray Harbour<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/endeavour-voyage/kamay-botany-bay/settling-on-a-name|title= Settling on a name|website=[[National Museum of Australia]]|accessdate=26 March 2023}}</ref>
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| image              = Sydney from Botany Bay looking north (aerial).jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = Aerial photo of [[Sydney]] showing Botany Bay in the foreground. <br/>
The two protrusions into the bay are runways of [[Sydney Airport]].
| image_bathymetry   = 
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| location           = [[Sydney]], [[New South Wales]], Australia
| group              = 
| coordinates        = {{coord|33|59|59|S|151|13|59|E|display=inline,title}}
| type               = Bay<ref name="roy">{{cite journal |author1=Roy, P. S. |author2=Williams, R. J. |author3=Jones, A. R. |author4=Yassini, I. |year=2001 |title=Structure and Function of South-east Australian Estuaries |journal=[[Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science]] |volume=53 |issue=3 |pages=351–384 |doi=10.1006/ecss.2001.0796|bibcode=2001ECSS...53..351R |display-authors=etal}}</ref>
| etymology          = 
| part_of            = 
| inflow             = Georges River, Cooks River
| rivers             = 
| outflow            = Tasman Sea
| oceans             = 
| catchment          = {{convert|54.9|km2|abbr=on}}
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| length             = {{convert|10|km|abbr=on}}
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| area               = {{convert|39.6|km2|abbr=on}}
| depth              = {{convert|11.4|m|abbr=on}}
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| volume             = {{convert|440815800|m3|abbr=on}}
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| image_map               =  Sydney SPOT 1210.jpg
|pushpin_map=Australia Sydney
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| website            = [http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/estuaries/stats/BotanyBay.htm NSW Environment & Heritage webpage]
| reference          = 
}}

'''Botany Bay''' ([[Dharawal language|Dharawal]]: ''Kamay'') is an open [[ocean]]ic embayment,<ref name="roy"/> located in [[Sydney]], [[New South Wales]], Australia, {{convert|13|km|0|abbr=on}} south of the [[Sydney central business district]]. Its source is the [[confluence]] of the [[Georges River]] at [[Taren Point]] and [[Sans Souci, New South Wales|Sans Souci]] as well as the [[Cooks River]] at [[Kyeemagh]], which flows {{convert|10|km|0|abbr=on}} to the east before meeting its [[river mouth|mouth]] at the [[Tasman Sea]], midpoint between the suburbs of [[La Perouse, New South Wales|La Perouse]] and [[Kurnell]]. The northern headland of the entrance to the bay from the Tasman Sea is Cape Banks, and, on the southern side, the outer headland is [[Cape Solander]], and the inner headland is [[Sutherland Point]].

The total catchment area of the bay is approximately {{convert|55|km2|abbr=on}}. Despite its relative shallowness, the bay now serves as greater metropolitan Sydney's main [[cargo]] [[port|seaport]], located at [[Port Botany (seaport)|Port Botany]], with [[Port operator|facilities managed]] by [[Port Authority of New South Wales|Sydney Ports Corporation]]. Two runways of [[Sydney Airport]] extend into the bay, as do some port facilities. [[Kamay Botany Bay National Park]] is located on the northern and southern headlands of the bay. The area surrounding the bay is generally managed by [[Transport for NSW]].

The land adjacent to Botany Bay was settled for many millennia by the Tharawal and Eora peoples and their associated clans. On 29 April 1770, Botany Bay was the site of James Cook's first landing of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on the land mass of Australia, after his extensive navigation of New Zealand. Later, the British planned Botany Bay as the site for a [[penal colony]]. Out of these plans came the first [[History of Australia (1788–1850)|European habitation of Australia]] at [[Sydney Cove]]. Although the penal settlement was almost immediately shifted to Sydney Cove, for some time in Britain, transportation to "Botany Bay" was a metonym for transportation to any of the Australian penal colonies.

==History==
===Aboriginal prehistory===
Archaeological evidence from the shores of Botany Bay has revealed an Aboriginal settlement dating back 5,000 years. The Aboriginal people of Sydney were the Eora, the Dharawal, and the Dharug, who comprised at least 28 known clans with traditional boundaries. The clans of the Botany Bay area were the [[Gweagal]] who occupied the south shore and the Gameygal on the north shore. It is possible that the [[Bidjigal]] clan lived between the Cooks River and the Georges River, but the evidence for this is unclear.<ref>{{cite book |title=St. George Pictorial Memories: Rockdale, Kogarah, Hurstville |author=Lawrence, Joan |publisher=Kingsclear Books |year=1996 |location=Crows Nest, NSW |isbn=0-908272-45-6 |page=3}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Attenbrow |first=Val |title=Sydney's Aboriginal Past, investigating the archaeological and historical records |publisher=UNSW Press |year=2010 |isbn=9781742231167 |edition=2nd |location=Sydney |pages=22–27}}</ref> 

Botany Bay is named ''Kamay'' in the [[Dharawal language]].<ref name="KamayNSWDeptofEducation">{{cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/meeting-at-kamay/home|title=Meeting at Kamay|work=Teaching Resources|publisher=NSW Government (Department of Education)|access-date=11 March 2021}}</ref><ref name="KamayNationalMuseum">{{cite web|url=https://www.nma.gov.au/exhibitions/endeavour-voyage/kamay-botany-bay|title=Kamay (Botany Bay)|work=Endeavour Voyage|publisher=[[National Museum of Australia]]|access-date=11 March 2021}}</ref>

===European history and later===
[[File:SLNSW 826105 Botany Bay New South Wales ca 1789 watercolour by Charles Gore.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.8|''Botany Bay'', 1788 watercolour by [[Charles Gore (artist)|Charles Gore]]]]

[[James Cook|Lieutenant James Cook]] first landed at [[Kurnell]], on the southern banks of Botany Bay, in what is now [[Silver Beach (New South Wales)|Silver Beach]], on Sunday 29 April 1770, when navigating his way up the east coast of Australia on his ship, [[HMS Endeavour|HMS ''Endeavour'']]. Initially the name ''Stingrays Harbour'' was used by Cook and other journal keepers on his expedition, for the [[stingray]]s they caught.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.gnb.nsw.gov.au/place_naming/placename_search/extract?id=MnjLoesE|title=Extract – Geographical Names Board of NSW|last=Wales|first=Geographical Name Board of New South|website=gnb.nsw.gov.au|access-date=2016-11-07|archive-date=7 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107092738/http://www.gnb.nsw.gov.au/place_naming/placename_search/extract?id=MnjLoesE|url-status=dead}}</ref> That name was also recorded on an Admiralty chart.<ref name="Botany">Beaglehole (ed.) 1968, p. ccix</ref> Cook's log for 6 May 1770 records "The great quantity of these sort of fish found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Stingrays Harbour". However, in the journal prepared later from his log, Cook wrote instead: (sic) "The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of <s>Botanist</s> Botany Bay".{{refn|group=note|The strikethrough is in the Cook's original, reflecting a change of mind sometime after leaving the Bay in 1770.}}<ref name="Botany"/> Cape Banks is named after [[Joseph Banks]] and [[Cape Solander]] after [[Daniel Solander]].

18 years later, Governor [[Arthur Phillip]] sailed the armed tender [[HMS Supply (1759)|HMS ''Supply'']] into the bay on 18 January, 1788. [[First contact (anthropology)|First contact]] was made with the local [[Indigenous Australian|Indigenous people]], the [[Eora]], who seemed curious but suspicious of the newcomers. Two days later, the remaining ships of the [[First Fleet]] arrived to found the planned [[penal colony]]. The land was quickly ruled unsuitable for settlement as there was insufficient fresh water; Phillip also believed the swampy foreshores would render any colony unhealthy as the bay was open and unprotected, the water was too shallow to allow the ships to anchor close to the shore, and the soil was poor.<ref>Parker 2009, p.113</ref>

The area was studded with enormously strong trees. When the convicts tried to cut them down, their tools broke, and the tree trunks had to be blasted out of the ground with gunpowder. The primitive huts built for the officers and officials quickly collapsed in rainstorms. Crucially, Phillip worried that his fledgling colony was exposed to attack from [[Aboriginal Australian|Aboriginal peoples]] or foreign powers. Although his initial instructions were to establish the colony at Botany Bay, he was authorised to establish the colony elsewhere if necessary.<ref name="Museum of Australian Democracy">{{cite web
  | title      = Governor Phillip's Instructions 25 April 1787 (UK)
  | url        = http://foundingdocs.gov.au/item-sdid-68.html
  | publisher  = [[Museum of Australian Democracy]]
  | access-date = 24 November 2013
  }}</ref> As such, Phillip decided instead to move to the excellent natural harbour of [[Port Jackson]] to the north.<ref>Governor Phillip to Lord Sydney, 15 May 1788, cited in Britten (ed.) 1978, pp. 121–123</ref>

On the morning of 24 January, the [[France|French]] exploratory expedition of [[Jean-François de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse]] was seen outside Botany Bay. On 26 January, the ''Supply'' left the bay to move up to Port Jackson and anchor in [[Sydney Cove]]. On the afternoon of 26 January, the remaining ships of the First Fleet arrived at Sydney Cove. In 1789, Captain [[John Hunter (Royal Navy officer)|John Hunter]] surveyed Botany Bay after returning from the Cape of Good Hope, trading for grain. The good supply of fresh water in the area led to an expansion of its population in the 19th century.

The western shore of Botany Bay remained in its virgin state for almost 50 years after the initial settlement of [[Sydney central business district|Sydney Town]]. Access to the area was difficult until a route from the west was established via Canterbury, New South Wales. As this route developed, it became known as Illawarra Road, which remains one of the main access routes to the eastern suburbs of Sydney. The land nearer to this crossing of [[Cooks River]] was cleared and settled quite early in the infancy of the new colony.

==Landmarks==
[[File:La Perouse 3.JPG|thumb|Monument at [[La Perouse, New South Wales|La Perouse]]]]
[[Sydney Airport]], Australia's busiest airport, sits on the northwestern side of Botany Bay. Some of its runways go out into the bay. After [[World War II]] the mouth of the [[Cooks River]] was moved two kilometres west to make way for the airport extension. Land was reclaimed from the bay to extend its first north–south runway and to build a second, parallel runway.

The first container terminal at Port Botany, located east of the airport, was completed in the 1970s and is the largest container terminal in Sydney. A second container terminal was completed during the 1980s, and bulk liquid storage facilities are located on the northern and southern edges of the bay. A third container terminal was completed in 2011.

The land around the headlands of the bay is protected by the [[NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service]] as [[Kamay Botany Bay National Park]]. On the northern side of the mouth of the bay is the historic site of La Perouse, and to the south is Kurnell. Despite its relative isolation, the southern shore of the bay is dominated by an unusual mixture of pristine national park and heavy industrial use that includes [[Sydney Desalination Plant]], the [[Kurnell Refinery|Caltex Fuel Terminal]], sewer treatment, and historical [[sand mining]] facilities.<ref name=scma>{{cite web |title=Kurnell Peninsula: a guide to the plants, animals, ecology and landscapes |access-date=7 January 2013 |url=http://sydney.cma.nsw.gov.au/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=51&func=download&id=549&chk=5115e53218b24f9cc44e7a81fdff0449&no_html=1 |publisher=Sydney Metropolitan Catchment Management Authority |year=2010 }}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> On the southern side of the bay a section of water has been fenced off under the authority of the NSW National Parks & Wildlife Service at [[Towra Point Nature Reserve|Towra Point]] for environmental conservation purposes.

The western shores of the bay feature many popular swimming beaches including [[Lady Robinsons Beach]] and are highly urbanised.

There are also a lot of bunkers around Botany Bay. The bunkers were built by the military during World War II and still remain in place.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mbasic.facebook.com/groups/795587077160341?view=permalink&id=3193105024075189&refid=7&_ft_=qid.6841522973855662507:mf_story_key.-5327898481503178466:group_id.795587077160341:top_level_post_id.3193105024075189:content_owner_id_new.536211023:src.22:photo_attachments_list.%5B10157256627091024,10157256627141024,10157256627216024,10157256627296024,10157256627376024%5D:photo_id.10157256627091024:story_location.5:story_attachment_style.album:view_time.1592916197:filter.h_nor&__tn__=*W-R|title=Old & Abandoned Australia Public Group &#124; Facebook|website=mbasic.facebook.com|access-date=28 September 2020}}</ref>

==Marine life==
Botany Bay has a diverse marine population, and the area around its entrance is a popular spot for scuba diving. In 2008, the Botany Bay Watch Project began with volunteers assisting to monitor and protect the Botany Bay Catchment and its unique marine life.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.botanybaywatch.com.au/ |publisher=Botanybaywatch.com.au |title=Botany Bay Watch Project |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080718193604/http://www.botanybaywatch.com.au/ |archive-date=18 July 2008 }}</ref>

The world's largest population of weedy sea dragons ever surveyed is found at the 'Steps' dive site, on the Kurnell side of Botany Bay National Park. Weedy sea dragons are just one of hundreds of territorial marine creatures found within Botany Bay. The [[eastern blue groper]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.botanybaywatch.com.au/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Marine.BlueGroper |title=Marine Blue Groper |publisher=Botanybaywatch.com.au |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719121344/http://www.botanybaywatch.com.au/pmwiki/pmwiki.php?n=Marine.BlueGroper |archive-date=19 July 2008 }}</ref> is the state fish of New South Wales; it is very tame and is commonly found following divers along the shoreline of Botany Bay.

==In popular culture==
{{unreferenced section|date=July 2015}}
* Despite the move to [[Sydney Cove]], for many years the Australian penal colony would be referred to as "Botany Bay" in England, and in ballads such as "[[The Fields of Athenry]]," by [[Ireland|Irish]] songwriter [[Pete St. John]].
* A song named "[[Botany Bay (song)|Botany Bay]]" has been performed as a folk and music hall song since the 1890s, based on older tunes. It also refers to the penal colony.
* A song entitled "[[The Shores of Botany Bay]]" was written by [[Brian Warfield]] and recorded by [[The Wolfe Tones]] in the early 1970s. This satirical song deals with a group of Irishmen volunteering for the transportation process in the hopes of finding wealth in Australia.
* A song titled "Bound for Botany Bay" is featured on Irish singer-songwriter and guitarist John Doyle's album Shadow and Light.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-10-30 |title=John Doyle: Shadow and Light |url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/radionational/archived/weekendplanet/john-doyle--shadow-and-light/3585270 |access-date=2024-07-16 |website=ABC Radio National |language=en-AU}}</ref>
* In the 1941 historical novel ''Botany Bay'' by [[Charles Nordhoff]] and [[James Norman Hall]], the protagonist, after various adventures and misadventures in England, gets transported to Botany Bay. [[Botany Bay (film)|A movie based on the book]] starring Alan Ladd and James Mason was shot in 1953.
* The song "[[Jim Jones at Botany Bay]]" (aka "Jim Jones") is about a prisoner who is going to Botany Bay. The song has been recorded several times, including a well-known version by [[Bob Dylan]], and sung by [[Jennifer Jason Leigh]] in ''[[The Hateful Eight]]''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/blowing-in-yet-again-20110414-1dffx.html |title=Blowing in, yet again |first=Larry |last=Schwartz |date=15 April 2011 |access-date=6 September 2018 |newspaper=[[Sydney Morning Herald]] }}</ref>
* SS ''Botany Bay'' was the name of the spaceship on which [[Khan Noonien Singh]] and his followers escaped from Earth in the "''[[Space Seed]]''" episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'', and ''[[Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan]].''
* In the play and musical ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'', Benjamin Barker, the man who would become Sweeney Todd, was transported to Botany Bay for life on a false charge by Judge Turpin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet |url=https://www.sondheimsociety.com/copy-of-saturday-night |access-date=2024-07-16 |website=Sondheim Society |language=en}}</ref>
* In the [[MMORPG]] [[Runescape]], Botany Bay is the name of a location in-game where players can view other players' accounts being penalized for using "bots", [[Macro (computer science)|computer macros]], to cheat.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://services.runescape.com/m=news/botany-bay |title=Botany Bay |date=26 September 2012 |access-date=6 September 2018 |work=[[Runescape]] |publisher=[[Jagex Ltd.]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.pcgamer.com/runescape-to-get-a-botmaster-general-and-put-botters-on-trial-in-botany-bay/ |title=Runescape puts botters on trial in Botany Bay and lets players decide their fate |first=Tom |last=Senior |date=4 May 2016 |access-date=6 September 2018 |journal=[[PC Gamer]] |publisher=[[Future US, Inc.]]}}</ref>
* The 2015 7-part British TV series ''[[Banished (TV series)|Banished]]'' was a dramatisation of the first few weeks of the penal colony.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wiseman |first=Andreas |title=Jimmy McGovern's Banished debut BBC First order |url=https://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/jimmy-mcgoverns-banished-debut-bbc-first-order/5068537.article |access-date=2024-07-16 |website=Broadcast |language=en}}</ref>

==Gallery==
<gallery>
File:Botany Bay entrance, NSW, 26th. Nov. 2010 - Flickr - PhillipC.jpg|The [[river mouth|mouth]] of Botany Bay as it meets the [[Tasman Sea]], as viewed from the air, above [[Kurnell]]
File:Botany Bay.JPG|The mouth of Botany Bay from the air
File:Kurnell Flags.JPG|Botany Bay, view from [[Kurnell]]
File:Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of Plymouth taking leave of their lovers who are going to Botany Bay.jpeg|Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll of [[Plymouth]], England, mourning their lovers who are soon to be transported to Botany Bay, 1792
File:BrightonLeSands First Fleet monument.JPG|Bicentennial Monument at [[Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales|Brighton-Le-Sands]]
File:20100126 - Sydney Airport 01 - Australia Day.jpg|[[Sydney Airport]] runway near Botany Bay beach
File:Sydney Skyline from Botany Bay.jpg|[[Sydney central business district|Sydney CBD]] [[Skyline of Sydney|skyline]] viewed from Botany Bay
</gallery>

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
*{{cite book |title =The Journals of Captain James Cook on His Voyages of Discovery, vol. I:The Voyage of the Endeavour 1768–1771 |editor=Beaglehole, J.C. |editor-link=John Cawte Beaglehole| year =1968 | publisher =[[Cambridge University Press]]| oclc=223185477}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite book |title =Historical records of New South Wales. Vol. 1, part 2. Phillip, 1783–1792. | editor =Britton, Alex R. | year =1978 | publisher =Lansdown Slattery & Co. | page =56 | oclc=219911274}}
* {{cite book |first=George |last=Forster |trans-title=Neuholland und die brittische Colonie in Botany-Bay/New Holland and the British colony at Botany Bay |language=de |others=Robert J. King, translator |title=Allgemeines historisches Taschenbuch, oder, Abriss der merkwuridgsten neuen Welt Begebenheiten enthaltend fur 1787 |publisher=National Library of Australia |location=Canberra |year=2008}}
* {{cite book |title=[[s:The History of Botany-Bay|The History of Botany-Bay]] |date=1798 |publisher=T. Johnston |location=Falkirk}}
* {{cite book |title=Le texte fondateur de l'Australie, récit de voyage d'un capitaine de la First Fleet durant l'Expédition à Botany Bay |others=preface by Merle, d'Isabelle |year=2006 |author=Tench, Watkin |author-link=Watkin Tench |language=fr |editor=Anacharsis |isbn=2-914777-30-2 |page=320 |publisher=Anacharsis |url=http://www.lekti-ecriture.com/editeurs/Expedition-a-Botany-Bay-la.html |access-date=24 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061125034211/http://www.lekti-ecriture.com/editeurs/Expedition-a-Botany-Bay-la.html |archive-date=25 November 2006 |url-status=dead }}
* [[Watkin Tench|Tench, W.]], ''[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3535 A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany-Bay]'' (1788)

==External links==
{{Wikisource|Botany Bay|Botany Bay lyrics}}
{{EB1911 poster|Botany Bay}}
{{Commons category|Botany Bay, Sydney}}
{{Wikivoyage|Botany Bay}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ieo/GeorgesRiver/maplg.htm|title=Georges River catchment|format=map|work=Office of Environment and Heritage|publisher=[[Government of New South Wales]]}}
* [http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/estuaries/stats/BotanyBay.htm NSW Environment & Heritage webpage]
* [http://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/features/when-irish-convicts-were-banished-to-botany-bay-317307.html Irish Examiner article concerning penal colony]
* {{cite web | url = http://dictionaryofsydney.org/natural_feature/botany_bay | title = Booralee fishing town | access-date = 6 October 2015 | author = Joanne Sippel | date = 2013 | work=[[Dictionary of Sydney]]| publisher = Dictionary of Sydney Trust}}

{{1stVoyageCookAus}}
{{Waterways of Sydney |state=autocollapse}}
{{Bays of New South Wales |state=autocollapse}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Botany Bay| ]]
[[Category:Bays of New South Wales]]
[[Category:James Cook]]
[[Category:Port cities in New South Wales]]
[[Category:Botany, New South Wales]]
[[Category:Mascot, New South Wales]]
[[Category:Georges River]]