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8 unusual facts about Botany Bay


1786 in Great Britain

August - British Cabinet approves the establishment of a penal colony at Botany Bay to serve as "a remedy for the evils likely to result from the late alarming and numerous increase of felons in this country and more particularly in the metropolis" (London).

1788 in Great Britain

17 February - The uninhabited Lord Howe Island is discovered by the brig HMS Supply, commanded by Lieutenant Ball, who is on his way from Botany Bay to Norfolk Island with convicts to start a penal settlement there.

1794 Treason Trials

In Scotland, three leaders of the convention were tried for sedition and sentenced to fourteen years of service in Botany Bay.

Botany Bay, Derbyshire

While Botany Bay in New South Wales was named for the quantity of botanical specimens found there, the history of the naming of the Derbyshire hamlet is unclear.

Botany Bay, London

Its remoteness from other settlements probably explains its name, as a facetious reference to Botany Bay in Australia.

Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope

In 1794 Stanhope supported Thomas Muir, one of the Edinburgh politicians who were transported to Botany Bay; and in 1795 he introduced into the Lords a motion deprecating any interference with the internal affairs of France.

Macken

One of them, Ignatius McManus, was hanged and most of the remainder were transported to Botany Bay, Australia.

Noel Drayton

Noel Drayton (October 7, 1913 – December 7, 1981) was an American actor, known for supporting roles in films like Elephant Walk, The Court Jester, Hong Kong Confidential and Botany Bay.


Solander Point

It is named after the Swedish scientist Daniel Solander, who was the first university-educated scientist to set foot on Australian soil at Botany Bay in 1770.


see also

1788 in Great Britain

26 January - Eleven ships of First Fleet from Botany Bay led by Arthur Phillip land in what would become Sydney, Australia.

George Barrington

According to his biographer Richard S. Lambert, the first volume of Barrington's memoirs about Australia, "A Voyage to Botany Bay," is the work of Barrington's that is least changed, or wholly invented, by editors and publishers.

Jim Jones at Botany Bay

# Geoffrey Grigson (editor), The Penguin Book of Ballads (1975), 96, "Jim Jones at Botany Bay" (1 text)

Josiah Wedgwood

Commemorating the landing of the First Fleet in Botany Bay, the Sydney Cove medallion was made by Josiah Wedgwood after he was given a sample of clay from Sydney Cove by Sir Joseph Banks, who had received the sample from Governor Arthur Phillip.

King Street, Newtown, Sydney

Colonial officer Watkin Tench recorded that during the early years of the colony, the area beyond the settlement was, in effect, open parkland, and that it was possible to walk easily across country from Sydney Cove to Botany Bay.

Lake Bruin

Former State Senator Clifford Cleveland Brooks in 1920 purchased the Botany Bay plantation on Lake Bruin.