On 29 April 1770, Botany Bay was the site of James Cook’s first landing of HMS Endeavour on the land mass of Australia, after his extensive navigation of New Zealand. Lieutenant James Cook first landed at Kurnell, on the southern banks of Botany Bay, in what is now Silver Beach, on Sunday 29 April 1770, when navigating his way up the east coast of Australia on his ship, HMS Endeavour. Cook’s landing marked the beginning of Britain’s interest in Australia and in the eventual colonisation of this new „southern continent“. Initially the name Stingrays Harbour was used by Cook and other journal keepers on his expedition, for the stingrays they caught. That name was also recorded on an Admiralty chart. 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: „The great quantity of plants Mr. Banks and Dr. Solander found in this place occasioned my giving it the name of Botanist Botany Bay“. Cape Banks is named after Joseph Banks and Cape Solander after Daniel Solander. Later the British planned Botany Bay as the site for a penal colony. Out of these plans came the first 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 settlements.