Cape Hawke

Grade 4: Great views from this elevated and distinctive feature. Relatively little evidence of human interference and it is easy to imagine Endeavour sailing by.

Situation: South of Forster, New South Wales, signposted from Lakes Way. From the car park at the end of the road it is a 430m walk and a steepish climb through rainforest to the lookout. A metal tower gives access to a spectacular view. To the north, North Brother (see Three Brothers entry) is dominant, its steep sided mass close to the coast.

Coordinates (decimal): 32.22 S 152.57 E

Endeavour Journal, 11 May 1770:

At 8 oClock [a.m.] we were abreast of a high point of land which made in two hillocks, this point I call’d Cape Hawke; Latde 32.14 S, Londe 207.30 West; it bore from us at this time west distt 8 Miles…

Cook named this land feature for Admiral Sir Edward Hawke (1705-1781), First Lord of the Admiralty in 1768 when Cook sailed. His name appears on Cook’s sailing instructions for the voyage. When it was suggested that Alexander Dalrymple, explorer and map maker, should be the Royal Society’s observer of the Transit of Venus on the Endeavour voyage, Dalrymple refused to go unless he was in command of the ship. The Admiralty found this suggestion ‘entirely repugnant to the regulations of the Navy’. Hawke famously refused to sign any such commission, saying that he would rather cut off his right hand than permit anyone but a King’s Officer to command one of the ships of His Majesty’s Navy.