Cook may not have been the first to reach Australia

A newly discovered shipwreck could provide new evidence that Britain’s Captain James Cook was not the first European to reach Australia’s East coast. The 30-metre wreck found by archeologists on Queensland’s Fraser Island is believed to be a 16th century Portuguese or Spanish galleon pre-dating Captain Cook’s arrival, in Australia, in 1770.

Photographs of three cannons are to be sent to international experts to verify their age. A team of archaeologists has used a magnetometer to confirm dimensions of the wreck.

If the wreck is confirmed to be from the 16th century, it would prove that Cook was not the first European to land on the East coast of Australia.