How did Captain Cook help shape early Australia?

Answer 1

James Cook explored and charted the eastern coast of Australia (he did not discover Australia). He and botanist Joseph Banks, who was aboard the Endeavour with Cook during this journey, proposed that Australia be settled as a penal colony. His reports of the continent were far more favourable than those of fellow Englishman William Dampier, who had only landed on Australia's far northwestern shores. Cook therefore helped shape Australia because his reports were directly responsible for the subsequent settlement of the land, even though this occurred eighteen years after Cook's mapping of the coast.