Point Hicks (formerly called Cape Everard), is a coastal headland in the East Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, located within the Croajingolong National Park.

[1][3] In April 1770 this area became the first land on the east coast of Australia known to have been sighted by Europeans, when HMS Endeavour reached the continent during the first voyage of James Cook to the Pacific.

After charting New Zealand during his first voyage of discovery, Cook set a course westwards, intending to strike for Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) to establish whether or not it formed part of the presumed southern continent.

Cook recorded the event thus:the Southermost [sic] Point of land we had in sight which bore from us W1/4S I judged to lay in the Latitude of 38°..0' S° and in the Longitude of 211°..07' W t from the Meridian of Greenwich.

[5]Cook calculated that Van Diemen's Land ought to lie due south of their position, but having found the coastline trending to the south-west, recorded his doubt that this landmass was connected to it.

[6] Margaret Cameron-Ash, however, claims that Cook deliberately falsified his charts and coordinates in order to hide the existence of Bass Strait for reasons of military and colonial policy.

[2]: n30 [19]In the 1930s, the Australian businessman and philanthropist, Russell Grimwade, commissioned stone to be quarried from Cape Everard and shipped to Great Ayton in Yorkshire.