In 1770 Captain James Cook recorded the first sighting by a European of what is now known as Fraser Island. He was under the misapprehension that it was part of the mainland and accordingly named it Great Sandy Peninsula.

From his journal entry of 20th May 1770, the journey north past the island appears to have been uneventful.

Captain James Cook,
photo courtesy National Library Canberra

Cook named Sandy Cape because of the two very large, white patches of sand upon it.

Of Breaksea Spit he said, 'This shoal I called Breaksea Spit, because now we had smooth water whereas upon the whole coast to the southward of it we had always a high sea or swell from the south east.'

Though Cook's mention of the natives (he called them Indians) was casual, the effect of his appearance on the Aborigines of Fraser was quite different.

They commemorated the event in song:

Edward Armitage, who recorded the song, said that his informant, Willy Watts, was a good singer and a very intelligent man.

Willy told Armitage that the ship had been sailing towards the dangerous sand shoal, and the Aborigines raised shouts of warning.

When very near the shoal the ship saw it, turned away quickly and went far away and then 'down into the sea like the sand crabs'.


Captain Matthew Flinders,
photo courtesy National Library Canberra

The Fraser Islanders had had their first distant glimpse of a white man but they were not to come face to face with one until 1802 when Lt Matthew Flinders came ashore over three decades later from his ship Investigator.

 
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