page_title: Sutherland Shire
section_title: European settlement
hierarchical_section_title: Sutherland Shire / History / European settlement
caption_attribution_description: Cook's landing at Botany Bay in 1770. Lithograph by unknown artist, first published in the Town and Country Journal New South Wales, 21 December 1872.
context_page_description: The Sutherland Shire is a local government area in the southern region of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. The Sutherland Shire is colloquially known as "The Shire" and it has been featured in several reality television series.
  Geographically, it is the area to the south of Botany Bay and the Georges River. The administrative centre of the local government is located in the suburb of Sutherland, with council chambers located in Eton Street. Within the Shire is the birthplace of modern Australia, as it was the first landing site of Lieutenant James Cook, who went ashore onto what is now the suburb of Kurnell on 29 April 1770. It was originally intended to be the site of the first British Settlement, before Sydney Cove was chosen as the location during the First Fleet. The Sutherland Shire is 26 kilometres south of Sydney central business district, and is bordered by the City of Canterbury-Bankstown, City of Wollongong, City of Liverpool, Georges River Council and City of Campbelltown local government areas.
  The Sutherland Shire comprises an area of 370 square kilometres and as at the 2016 census had an estimated population of 218,464.
context_section_description: European discovery of what is now Sutherland Shire was made by Lieutenant James Cook, who entered Botany Bay on 29 April 1770. Cook and his party explored around Kurnell Peninsula, and left the bay on 6 May. During their brief stay, a Scottish seaman named Forbes Sutherland died of tuberculosis. In his honour, Cook named the northwest point of the peninsula Point Sutherland.
  The British government needed a new site for transported convicts as they had lost their American colonies following defeat in the American Revolutionary War. Botany Bay was chosen as the new penal settlement and the First Fleet under Governor Arthur Phillip anchored off Kurnell on 18 January 1788. After sending a party to clear land for settlement, Phillip soon realised the area was unsuitable. There was lack of shelter for ships, inadequate water and poor soil. On 24 January, two French ships were sighted off the coast, causing Phillip to raise English colours near Sutherland Point. Governor Phillip sailed north to explore Port Jackson, and eventually settled at Sydney Cove.
  The first landowner in Sutherland Shire was James Birnie, a mercantile trader who was granted by promise 700 acres (280 ha) at Kurnell in 1815. After the completion of official surveying, a large part of what is now Sutherland Shire was proclaimed as the Hundred of Woronora by Governor Richard Bourke in 1835. Title to land was not granted by the Crown until 1856, before which there was practically no settlement. Timber cutting was the primary industry, supplemented by shell gathering in the Port Hacking area.
  With the opening of Crown Lands sales in the Shire, Thomas Holt purchased 12,000 acres (4,900 ha). His developmental projects included oyster farms, cattle grazing, and coal mining. The investment which proved profitable however, were his timber leases. He constructed a magnificent manor on the foreshores of Sylvania, called Sutherland House, based on English feudal lines.  Due to 99-year leases, Holt's estate reduced development in the Sutherland Shire even into the 20th century.
caption: Cook landing at Botany Bay
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