AN Australian council has been criticised by a North-East museum over claims that it plans to drop a logo featuring explorer Captain Cook from its letterheads and rubbish bins.

Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that a Botony Bay authority wanted to dump Captain James Cook's image because it seemed "dated and offensive" to Aborigines. It said bosses were planning to replace Cook with a dolphin.

The newspaper also reported the council's mayor, Tracie Sonda, as saying: "I've been at conferences where Aboriginal people talk about the 'invasion' and we've got Cook's head on our bins.

"A point has been raised that the logo could be seen as outdated, it could make the organisation look tired, and make us look like we lack enthusiasm."

Council chiefs in Australia denied planning to dump the logo, but a spokeswoman for the Captain Cook Birthplace Museum in Marton, Middlesbrough, said she wanted to see the logo kept on.

She said: "He is revered in Australia and also in Middlesbrough because he was born here.

"Everyone regards him as the greatest navigator ever born.

"I can't see their point in dropping the logo. If it wasn't Captain Cook discovering Australia, it would have been another sea captain. The world was getting smaller all the time and we can't just blame one person for it."

But Sutherland Shire Council yesterday said, far from removing the logo, it could use it even more.

The explorer's image is on everything from street signs to rubbish bins in Botany Bay, which is where Cook landed in 1770 and claimed the territory for Britain.