Captain Cook didn’t discover Australia, he invaded it (say the Aussies!)

SCHOOL children throughout the world are taught that Captain James Cook discovered Australia in the 18th century.

But one university – in Australia of all places – has now decided that the British hero was actually more of an invader than a discoverer.

The University of New South Wales said Cook’s arrival in 1770 should be described as an ‘invasion’ rather than a ‘settlement’, to avoid upsetting Aboriginal people.

Campus officials published a ‘terminology guide’ for students which advises them to say Australia was ‘occupied and colonised’ by Cook, pictured.

The guide notes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were in Australia long before Cook arrived, making it impossible for him to ‘discover’ the country. It added: ‘Most Aboriginal people find the use of the word “discovery” offensive.’

It comes after students at Oxford campaigned to tear down a statue of 19th-century colonialist Cecil Rhodes over claims it upset ethnic minority students, and critics accused the Australian university of trying to stifle freedom of speech.

Professor Alan Smithers, of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said: ‘The Aboriginal people did settle in what we now call Australia first, but its modern history began with Captain Cook and it makes no sense to try to obscure that.’

Dr Joanna Williams, director of the Centre for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Kent, added: ‘Attempts by universities to rewrite the past so as not to upset today’s easily offended students do no one any favours.

‘Privileging present-day emotional sensitivities turns history into a morality play rather than a search for truth and promotes historical illiteracy. Young people today are encouraged to see the past through the narcissistic lens of their own emotional reactions and this reveals the intellectual vacuum at the heart of universities.’

The authors of the terminology guide also instruct students to use the terms ‘indigenous Australian people’ or ‘Aboriginal peoples’ in place of ‘Aborigines’ or ‘the Aboriginal people’, to avoid implying that all indigenous Australians are the same.

The university said students were always encouraged to form their own opinions and to suggest that the guide would stifle open debate was ‘plainly wrong’.