Cooktown, in tropical North Queensland, might seem an unlikely place to hold the world premiere of a vocal chamber work. But this small isolated town has had a place on the global map for 251 years – for reasons that this contemporary composition explores.

Setting the scene for The Cooktown Cantata are exclamations of confusion from Australia’s First People, performed in the local Guugu Yimithirr language, as they watched HM Endeavour limping into the river mouth, Waalmbal Birri, where Cooktown is now situated. In June 1770, the Endeavour, captained by Lt James Cook, had been badly damaged on the Great Barrier Reef. On board naturalist, explorer and botanist, Joseph Banks, used the time while repairs were underway to collect and describe local flora. Many of these specimens were sketched at the time, others were taken back to England where copper engravings were made. They were not printed until long after Banks died in 1820. In 2018, a selection of 147 plates were printed, known as Joseph Banks’ Florilegium.

The Cooktown Cantata Derek Rosendale as Tulo Gordon, Margaret Schindler as Vera Scarth-Johnson and Jeffrey Black as Joseph Banks in The Cooktown...