Captain Cook may not have been the first white man to reach east coast of Oz

A skull found in the Manning River in Australia has raised questions about Captain James Cook being the first white man ever to reach the east coast.

The case began in November 2011, when a perfectly intact skull was found at Manning Point, near Taree.

Cops were called to the spot and an anthropologist said that it could belong to a young female, however, further testing revealed that the skull belonged to a white male, with an 80 percent chance of it being from the 1600s, decades before Captain Cook arrived there on Endeavour, the Daily Telegraph reported.

Detective Sergeant John Williamson said that the anthropologist report stated that the skull was that of a Caucasoid whose age was anywhere from 28 to 65.

Dr Stewart Fallon, of Australian National University, said that by using carbon dating on the skull and looking at enamel from a tooth, two possible time periods have been determined.

Fallon said that the first time period had the male born between 1650 and 1660 and died 40 to 50 years later.

He asserted that the second period suggested that the skull belonged to someone who was born between 1780 -1790 and died between 1805 -1810.

However, he said that his data suggested that there was an 80 percent chance that the skull must have come from someone living in the mid-17th century.