Cook's three epic voyages to the South Seas, between 1768–79, transformed the way Europeans viewed the Great South Land and the Pacific Ocean.

James Cook's first Pacific voyage (1768–71) was aboard the Endeavour and began on 27 May 1768. Cook's first goal was to establish an observatory at Tahiti to record the Transit of Venus, when that planet passed between the earth and the sun on 3 June 1769. The second aim of the expedition was to record the region’s natural history, led by 25-year-old Joseph Banks. The final secret goal was to continue the search for the Great South Land.

Although Cook’s Endeavour voyage took possession of Australia for Great Britain, many still believed that the legendary Great South Land was yet undiscovered. Despite the achievements of his first voyage, Cook himself lamented his failure to find the southern continent and pleaded for another opportunity to seek it. He was promoted commander and given charge of an expedition, with himself in the Resolution and Tobias Furneaux captain of the Adventure. On this second voyage in 1772–75, Cook circumnavigated the world in high southern latitudes. The chief importance of this voyage for Australian discovery was in February and March 1773, when the Adventure, parted from the Resolution by fog and gales, made for the south coast of Van Diemen's Land. Here Furneaux renamed Adventure Bay on Bruny Island, sailed around Tasman Peninsula and up the east coast to Flinders Island, but through bad weather failed to reach Point Hicks before proceeding to rendezvous with the Resolution in New Zealand.

Cook’s third and final voyage was an attempt to locate the North-West Passage, an ice-free sea route which linked the Atlantic to the Pacific. Again, Cook commanded Resolution while Charles Clerke commanded Discovery. Leaving England in 1776, Cook first sailed south to Tahiti to return Omai, a Tahitian man, to his home. Omai had been taken on Cook’s second voyage and had been an object of curiosity in London. Cook then visited Hawaii, becoming the first European to land there. Sailing north, Cook undertook an unsuccessful tour along the coast of Alaska to the Arctic Circle in 1778. Cook decided to return to Hawaii to spend the northern winter, a decision which resulted in his own tragic death and the deaths of four marines and 17 Hawaiians at Kealakekua Bay on the island of Hawaii.