Enigmatic Variations No.1770 – Discovery by Elgar

“Completing the four unclued perimetrical names (from US, J ROVED LONG for the unchecked letters) and the three barred-off cells will allow solvers to highlight two locations, one alphabetical and one “numerical” (27 cells in total), thereby illustrating a historical DISCOVERY. Chambers (2016) is recommended; Collins and other sources will confirm 34.”The two locations are QUEENSLAND and ‘ONE SEVEN SEVEN ZERO’, which I believe is a reference to Seventeen Seventy, a town in Queensland, specifically in the GLADSTONE region (northern perimeter). Wikipedia tells me that “The town is built on the site of the second landing in Australia by JAMES COOK (western perimeter) and the crew of the bark HMS ENDEAVOUR [eastern perimeter] in May 1770”. The town was originally known as ROUND HILL (southern perimeter).

I’m not sure what the ‘Discovery’ was, since it wasn’t his first landing in Australia and, more importantly, Australia had already been discovered by two million people, albeit that that number had dwindled to about 90,000 by 1901.

As always, please let me know if anything isn’t clear.