There were Europeans visiting Australia over 100 years before Cook:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_exploration_of_Australia

Brooke’s talk on Monday was very moving and challenging – I’ve been studying australian indigeneous history since high school and, knowing so much of this history, and the australian church’s apathy towards it, the ongoing plight of Australia’s first peoples is deeply shameful. If only our Christian communities would get as wound up about this issue as they seem intent to about SSM…

(ps – both my wife and I were there on Monday and have to say, the women ruled the day in our opinion! Thanks for organising the day – as “lay people” (whatever that means) and Christians aiming to model Christ in business, we found the whole day really thought provoking and prompted a desire in us to continually re-orient ourselves around what it means to follow Christ in our day.)

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/brisbane-could-rename-historically-racist-boundary-streets-20160129-gmhgi3.html

So named because it refers to a “boundary line” which was a “a racist policy that separated European arrivals from the local Jagera and Turrbal populations.”

In one sense changing a name or date (or removing a monument) feels like a “white washing” or covering up of racist history.

I think it’s better to modify or add to historical monuments in a way that both calls out historical racism but also signifies change.

Yeah, although I’ve seen a monument to Cook on Big Island, HI, commemorating where the Polynesians killed him and chopped him up. Not sure if the memorial is to Cook or the Hawaiians.

I recall a statue of James Cook on the island of Kauai, HI. Is says he discovered the land, got out of his ship, fired a cannon and claimed the land as British territory. No one else had any claim to the land, least of all the Polynesian peoples.