Bonavista, Nfld, Town, pop 4021 (2001c), 4526 (1996c), 4597 (1991c), area 31.50 km2, inc 1964, is located on the tip of the Bonavista Peninsula on the island's NE coast. Its name may have come from the Italian O Buon Vista ("Oh happy sight"), attributed to John CABOT, as Cape Bonavista is traditionally thought of as one of the possible places he made his first landfall in the New World in 1497.