Australia debates Captain Cook 'discovery' statue

A debate has ignited in Australia over a statue of British explorer Captain James Cook, which has a plaque saying he "discovered this territory".

The 19th Century statue, in Sydney's central Hyde Park, has come under scrutiny following recent discussion over Confederate monuments in the US.

Critics say the inscription overlooks indigenous Australians, while others defend it as being part of history.

Sydney's city council says it will seek advice on the issue.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said she had referred the debate to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisory .

The monument was installed more than a century after Capt Cook arrived in Australia in 1770, later claiming the region for the British crown.

Funded by the New South Wales government and of the public, the statue was completed by English sculptor Thomas Woolner and unveiled in front of a huge crowd in 1879.

It bears inscriptions marking Capt Cook's birth and death, but it is the south-facing engraving - "Discovered this territory 1770" - which has caused controversy.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation's indigenous affairs editor, Stan Grant, wrote an article on Friday arguing that "surely we need no longer maintain the fiction that he [Capt Cook] 'discovered' this country".

Grant said that the inscription should be changed. He argued that some other indigenous people favoured removing the statue.

Referring to a comment by PM Malcolm Turnbull about honouring indigenous Australians, Grant wrote: "If he is serious then what could be more apt than to correct a monument that tells us, still, that in 1770 we did not exist":[]}