408 



AUSTEALASIA. 



development of the colonies, is produced in the largest quantities in New South 

 Wales. Here also coal mining, and several other less important industries are far 

 more developed than elsewhere, and the claim to the hegemony among the 

 surrounding political groups seems strengthened even by priority in point of time. 

 Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, and New Zealand were, moreover, to a great 

 extent founded by settlers from New South Wales, and the very spot already 

 indicated by Cook has thus become the true centre of the Australasian colonial 

 world. 



The site chosen in 1788 as the first convict station at the antipodes of Great 



Fig. 175.— Botany Bat. 

 Scale 1 : 160,000. 



Land exposed 

 at low water. 



to5 

 Fathoms. 



Depths. 



5 to 25 

 Fathoms. 



26 to 100 

 Fathoms. 



100 Fathoms 

 and upwards. 



.3 Miles. 



Britain still remains unoccupied by a town of any size. The shores of Botany 

 Bay, whose name was long applied to the aggregate of the British possessions in 

 Australia, are dotted round only by a few small watering places and scattered 

 villas, which already form part of the environs of Sydney. The approach to the 

 harbour is indicated by the monument to Cook, who discovered this bay in 1770 ; 

 farther north stands the statue of Laperouse, who sailed in 1788 from this spot on 

 the last expedition, from which he never returned. The names of Banks and 

 Solander given to the two headlands facing each other on either side of the channel 

 also perpetuate the memory of illustrious pioneers in the work of Australian 

 discovery. If the inlet described in glowing colours by these first explorers has 



