Australian Bark Shield
A History of the World in 100 Objects
00:00
The Story of Cook and the End of Indigenous Australians
The red mangrove wood that it's made from grew around 200 miles north of Sydney. To source this wood, the people at Bosony Bay must have been trading with other indigenous Australians from much further afield. With no direct encounters or exchanges of gifts Cook gave up and after a week collecting botanical specimens he sailed on up the coast. When they reached the northern tip of Australia, Cook formally declared the Holy's Coast a British possession. Not long after they returned to England, banks and others recommended Botany Bay as a penal colony to the British Parliament.
Transcript
Play full episode
