Point Hicks

Point Hicks (Tolywiarar)
Cape Everard
Headland
Name origin: In honour of Lieutenant Zachary Hickes
Country	Australia
State	Victoria
Regions	South East Corner (IBRA), East Gippsland
Local government area	Shire of East Gippsland
Building	Point Hicks Lighthouse
Coordinates	37°48′11″S 149°16′32″E / 37.80306°S 149.27556°E / -37.80306; 149.27556Coordinates: 37°48′11″S 149°16′32″E / 37.80306°S 149.27556°E / -37.80306; 149.27556
Discovered by	James Cook
- date	19 April 1770 (1770-04-19)
National parks	Croajingolong NP, Point Hicks Marine NP
Location of Point Hicks in Victoria

Point Hicks or Tolywiarar (formerly called Cape Everard), is a coastal headland in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, located within the Croajingolong National Park. The point is marked by the Point Hicks Lighthouse that faces the Tasman Sea.

The traditional custodians of the land surrounding Point Hicks are the Australian Aboriginal Bidhawal and Gunaikurnai peoples who called the point Tolywiarar.

The coastal area near Point Hicks lies on the north-eastern coast of Victoria, Australia. It was the first land ever sighted and recorded by Caucasians on the East Coast of Australia (then known as New Holland).

The sighting took place at first light on Thursday 20 April 1770 by Lieutenant Zachary Hicks aboard James Cook's Endeavour. This was the first of Cook's three voyages to the Pacific, and the sighting came after 19 days' westward sailing following the Endeavour leaving New Zealand on its homeward journey. Cook recorded in his ship's Journal that it was Hicks who first saw land, and that later that day he (Cook) named a far-off point after Hicks: "I have named it Point Hicks, because Lieutenant Hicks was the first who discover'd this Land." This was confirmed by Aaron Arrowsmith's 1798 Chart of the Pacific Ocean, clearly showing Cook's Point Hicks. (Hicks did not survive the return voyage but died on board soon after the Endeavour left the Cape of Good Hope.)

George Bass sailed past the area at the end of 1797, in an open whale-boat and was unable to identify the point. Although Matthew Flinders sailed past the area in 1798-99 and again in 1802-03, the coastal area near Point Hicks was always out of Flinders’ visual range. Therefore, it did not appear on any of Matthew Flinders published charts. The name Point Hicks was still being used on maps up until 1840, before being replaced and renamed Cape Everard. The first use of the new name has been attributed to hydrographer John Lort Stokes who surveyed the coast in the Beagle in 1843. It is presumed he named it after fellow naval officer James Everard Home. Stokes' maps don't record the name, but many secondary sources attribute its introduction to him. The first known chart showing Cape Everard was published by surveyor George Douglas Smythe, made in 1852 and published in 1853. If he coined the name, then according to one theory he may have been referring to William Everard, commissioner of crown lands (though no record of that Everard has been found). The name Cape Everard was then adopted from 1853 up until the early 1900s, until more historical information became readily available.