Explore "A Bush Bayard" by John Sandes on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Lion Island lies in the estuary of the Hawkesbury in Broken Bay, which Captain Cook, while scanning the shore line with his spyglass as he coasted northward from Botany Bay, had discerned and noted in his log, thereby providing Governor Phillip, who came after him, with a hint that the energetic founder of the Sydney settlement was quick to act upon. It was Phillip who first sailed up that magnificent sheet of water and found the great river that flows into it.
The resemblance to a lion couchant is very striking. The outline of the back and head and extended fore paws is unmistakable. Governor Phillip lies far away under a slab in the little church of Bathampton in England. But carved by the hand of nature, massive and motionless, this island lion still keeps guard under the shadow of the tall cliffs of Barrenjoey Head over the entrance to the river that Phillip discovered.