James Cook - A Journal of the proceedings of His Majesty's Bark Endeavour on a voyage round the world, by Lieutenant James Cook, Commander, commencing the 25th of May 1768 - 23 Oct. 1770 - Page 323

New Wales or E Coast of New Holland
-tivated land in the whole country, they know however the use of  [Tuara?]  & sometimes eat them. We do not now that they eat anything raw but roast or broil all they eat on slow small fires. Their houses are mean small hovels, not so much bigger than an oven made of peices of sticks, bark, grass etc & even these are seldom used but in the wet season for in the day times we know they as often sleep in the open air as any where else, we have seen many of their sleeping places where there has been only some branches or peices of bark [rigs?] about a foot from the windward side their canoes are as mean as can
[margin] Canoes[/margin]
be conceived especially to the southw.d where all we saw were made of one peice of the bark of trees about 12 or 14 feet long drawn or tied together at one end. as I have before made mention these canoes will not carry above 2 people, in general their is never more than one in them but bad as they are they do very well for the purpose they apply them to. better than if they were larger for as they draw but  little water they go in them upon the mud bank & pick up shell fish etc, without going out of the canoe, the few canoes we saw to the northward were made out of a log of wood hollow'd out, about 14 feet long & very narrow with outriggers these will carry 4 people during our whole stay in Endeavour River we saw but one Canoe & had great reason to think that the few people that resided ab.t that place had not more. this one served them to cross the river & to go fishing in etc. They attend
[margin] Tools[/margin]
the shoals & flatts one where or any another every day at low water to gather shell fish or what ever they can find to eat & have each a little bag to put what they get in, this bag is made of net work. They have not the best knowledge of iron or any other metal that we know of their working toole must be made of stone bone & shell, those made of the former are very bad if I may judge from one of their axes I have seen
Bad & mean as their canoes are they at certain seasons of the year (so far as we know) go in them to the one distant islands which lay upon the coast for we never landed upon one but what we saw signs of people having been there before. We were surprised to find houses etc upon Lizard Island which lies 5 leag.s from the neared part of the main a distance we before thought they could not have gone in their canoes
The back of this country, at least so much of it as lays to the northward of 25° of latitude abound with a great number of fine bays & harbours which are shelter'd from all winds. but the country itself so far as we know doth not produce any one thing that can become an article in trade