Introduction to the Botany Bay Symposium

Botany Bay has an important place in the cultural history of both Europe and Australia. In the history of science, discoveries at Botany Bay played a major part in the development of understanding of what we now call biodiversity. The naming of the Bay by Captain Cook reflected the floristic diversity of the heaths and sclerophyll woodlands of the Kurnell Peninsula, but this was the second choice of name after the original thought of Stingray Bay which acknowledged the abundance of large stingrays present in the Bay in 1770.