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Authorities keen to remove 'symbols of European dominance'

Plans to make the site where Captain James Cook first landed in Australia less European and more Aboriginal in character have re-ignited the country's simmering racial divide.

The authority that manages the site on Botany Bay wants to remove flagpoles and an historic anchor and introduce pine trees in an effort to lessen the European imprint on what is regarded as the birthplace of modern Australia.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service of New South Wales says the features are symbols of 'European dominance' and ignore the Aboriginal history of the area.

Cook's arrival on the shores of Botany Bay on April 29, 1770, heralded the British colonisation of Australia and the dispossession of its Aboriginal population.

The Yorkshire-born explorer's initial contact with local tribes set a pattern for the next 200 years, after Aborigines flung spears at a landing party of 40 sailors and had to be driven off by musket fire.

According to a draft plan for the park surrounding Cook's landing place at Kurnell, south of Sydney, 'the message is one of European arrival by boat, not years of occupation by Aboriginal people'.

In addition to scrapping the flag poles and anchor, the national parks service proposes cutting down a number of mature Norfolk Island pine trees and replacing them with original bush land.

The trees are viewed as exotics because they originally came from Norfolk Island, a pinprick of land in the South Pacific, 1,400km north-east of Sydney.

'The pine trees in the open grassland are at odds with the more natural bush up the hill,' the plan states. 'The message is one of European domination over the Australian landscape.'

A local MP, Malcolm Kerr, said the proposed changes smacked of political correctness and would 'downgrade' the historical importance of Cook's landing.

'There should be ... more credit for Cook's achievements in a place that's the birthplace of modern Australian culture,' Mr Kerr said.

But the move was backed by  Aboriginal leaders, who said Cook's arrival led to a disastrous period of land grabs, guerilla warfare, population decline and cultural annihilation.

'I think it would be great if they recognised the area's Aboriginal importance more,' said Rod Towney, former head of the state's  Aboriginal Land Council.

'Aborigines see the arrival of Cook as a day of mourning. The British planted the Union Jack without the permission of Aborigines and took this country by force. In our view Cook did not discover Australia; Australia had always been here.'



Plan to make Captain Cook's landing site 'more Aboriginal'