Matthew Flinders
Encyclopedia
Captain
Matthew Flinders RN
(16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers
of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh
, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been known as New Holland. He survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned for violating the terms of his scientific passport by changing ships and carrying prohibited papers. He identified and corrected the effect upon compass readings of iron components and equipment on board wooden ships and he wrote a work on early Australian exploration A Voyage to Terra Australis
.
, England
, the son of Matthew Flinders, a surgeon, and his wife Susannah, née Ward. In his own words, he was "induced to go to sea against the wishes of my friends from reading Robinson Crusoe
", and at the age of fifteen he joined the Royal Navy
in 1789.
Initially serving on HMS Alert
, he transferred to HMS Scipio
, and in July 1790 was made midshipman
on HMS Bellerophon
under Captain Pasley
. By Pasley's recommendation, he joined Captain Bligh's expedition on , transporting breadfruit
from Tahiti
to Jamaica
. This was also young Flinders' first look at Australian waters landing at Adventure Bay
, Tasmania
in 1792. Upon his return to England, he rejoined the Bellerophon, in which he saw action at the Glorious First of June
.
was in 1795 as a midshipman aboard HMS Reliance
, carrying the newly appointed Governor of New South Wales Captain John Hunter
. On this voyage he quickly established himself as a fine navigator and cartographer, and became friends with the ship's surgeon George Bass
.
Not long after their arrival in Port Jackson
, Bass and Flinders made two expeditions in small open boats, both boats were called Tom Thumb
: the first to Botany Bay
and Georges River
, the second in a larger boat south from Port Jackson to Lake Illawarra
.
by Bass and Flinders in the same year.
In 1798, Flinders, who was now a Lieutenant
, was given command of the Norfolk
and orders "to sail beyond Furneaux's Islands, and, should a strait be found, pass through it, and return by the south end of Van Diemen's Land
". The passage between the Australian mainland and Tasmania enabled savings of several days on the journey from England, and was named Bass Strait
, after his close friend. In honour of this discovery, the largest island in Bass Strait would later be named Flinders Island
. The town of Flinders
near the mouth of Western Port
also commemorates Bass' discovery of that bay and port on 4 January 1798.Flinders never entered
Western Port, and only pass Cape Schanck on the 3rd. May 1802.
Flinders once more sailed the Norfolk, this time North on 17 July 1799, he arrived in Moreton Bay
between Redcliffe
and Brighton
. He touched down at Pumicestone Passage, Redcliffe and Coochiemudlo Island and also rowed ashore at Clontarf
. During this visit he named Redcliffe after the Red Cliffs.
In March 1800, Flinders rejoined the Reliance which set sail for England.
to convince the Admiralty
of the importance of an expedition to chart the coastline of New Holland. As a result, in January 1801, Flinders was given command of the Investigator, a 334-ton sloop, and promoted to Commander
the following month.
The Investigator set sail for New Holland on 18 July 1801. Attached to the expedition was the botanist Robert Brown
, botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer
and landscape artist William Westall
. Due to the scientific nature of the expedition, Flinders was issued with a French passport, despite England and France then being at war
.
Matthew and Ann had one daughter, Anne, born 1 April 1812, who later married William Petrie (1821 - 1908) and was the mother of the eminent archaeologist and
Egyptologist, William Matthew Flinders Petrie.
Flinders reached and named Cape Leeuwin
on 6 December 1801, and proceeded to make a survey along the southern coast of the Australian mainland.
On 8 April 1802 while sailing east Flinders sighted the Géographe
, a French corvette commanded by the explorer Nicolas Baudin
, who was on a similar expedition
for his government. Both men of science
, Flinders and Baudin met and exchanged details of their discoveries, Flinders named the bay Encounter Bay
.
Proceeding along the coast, Flinders explored Port Phillip
, which unbeknownst to him had been discovered only 10 weeks earlier by John Murray
aboard the Lady Nelson
. Flinders scaled Arthur's Seat, the highest point near the shores of the southernmost parts of the bay, where the ship had entered through The Heads
. From there he saw a vast view of the surrounding land and bays. Flinders reported back to Governor King that the land had 'a pleasing and, in many parts, a fertile appearance'. He stated on 1 May, "I left the ship's name on a scroll of paper, deposited in a small pile of stones upon the top of the peak". Here, Flinders was drawing upon a British tradition of constructing a stone cairn
to mark a historical location. The Matthew Flinders Cairn, which was later enlarged, is located on the upper slopes of Arthurs Seat a short distance below Chapman's Point.
With stores running low, Flinders proceeded to Sydney, arriving 9 May 1802.
Having hastily prepared the ship, Flinders set sail again on 22 July, heading north and surveying the coast of Queensland. From there he passed through the Torres Strait
, and explored the Gulf of Carpentaria
. During this time, the ship was discovered to be badly leaking, and despite careening
, they were unable to effect the necessary repairs. Reluctantly, Flinders returned to Sydney, though via the western coast, completing the circumnavigation of the continent. On the way, Flinders jettisoned two wrought iron anchors, one of which was found by divers in 1973 at Middle Island, Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia
. This anchor may be seen at the National Museum of Australia
. Arriving in Sydney 9 June 1803, the Investigator was subsequently judged to be unseaworthy and condemned.
. However the ship was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef
, approximately 700 miles (1127 km) north of Sydney. Flinders navigated the ship's cutter across open sea back to Sydney, and arranged for the rescue of the remaining marooned crew.
Flinders then took command of the 29-ton schooner Cumberland
in order to return to England, but the poor condition of the vessel forced him to put in at French-controlled Mauritius
for repairs on 17 December 1803.
War with France
had broken out again the previous May, but Flinders hoped his French passport (though for a different vessel) and the scientific nature of his mission would allow him to continue on his way. Despite this, and the knowledge of Baudin's earlier encounter with Flinders, the French governor, Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, was suspicious and detained Flinders. The relationship between the men soured: Flinders was affronted at his treatment, and Decaen insulted by Flinders' refusal of an invitation to dine with him and his wife. Decaen's search of Flinders' vessel uncovered a trunk full of papers from the governor of New South Wales that were not permitted under his scientific passport.
Decaen referred the matter to the French government, which was delayed not only by the long voyage, but also by the general confusion of war. Eventually on 11 March 1806, Napoleon gave his approval, but Decaen still refused to allow Flinders' release. It has been suggested that by this stage Decaen believed Flinders' knowledge of the island's defences would have encouraged Britain to attempt to capture it. Nevertheless, in June 1809 the Royal Navy began a blockade of the island, and in June 1810 Flinders was paroled. Travelling via the Cape of Good Hope
, he received a promotion to Post-Captain
, before continuing to England.
Flinders had been confined for the first few months of his captivity, however he was later afforded greater freedoms to move around the island and access his papers. In November 1804 Flinders sent the first map of the landmass he had charted (Y46/1) back to England. This was the only map made by Flinders, where he used the name "Australia" in all capitals for the title, and the first known time Flinders used the word "Australia".
Flinders finally returned to England in October 1810 in poor health and immediately resumed work preparing "A Voyage to Terra Australis" and his Atlas of maps for publication. The full title of this book which was first published in London in July 1814 was given, as was common at the time, a synoptic description: "A Voyage to Terra Australis : undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803 in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an account of the shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the commander during six years and a half in that island" . Original copies of the "Atlas to Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis" are held at the Mitchell Library
in Sydney
, Australia
as a portfolio that accompanied the book and included engravings of 16 maps, and 4 plates of views, and 10 plates of Australian flora.
The book was republished in 3 volumes in 1964 accompanied by a reproduction of the portfolio. Flinders' map of Terra Australia was first published in January 1814 and the remaining maps where published before his atlas and book. On 19 July 1814, the day after the book and atlas was published, Matthew Flinders died, aged 40.
On 12 April 1812 he and his wife had had a daughter who became Mrs. William Petrie; in 1853 the governments of New South Wales
and Victoria
bequeathed a belated pension to her (deceased) mother of £100 per year, to go to surviving issue of the union. This she, Mrs. Anne (née Flinders) Petrie (1812–1892), accepted on behalf of her young son, named William Matthew Flinders Petrie
, who would go on to become an accomplished archaeologist and Egyptologist.
Flinders was not the first to use the word "Australia". He owned a copy of Alexander Dalrymple
's 1771 book An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, and it seems likely he borrowed it from there, but he applied it specifically to the continent, not the whole South Pacific region. In 1804 he wrote to his brother: "I call the whole island Australia, or Terra Australis" and later that year he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks
and mentioned "my general chart of Australia." That 92 cm x 72 cm chart, made in 1804, was the first time Australia was used to name the landmass we know today. A map Flinders constructed from all the information he had accumulated while he was in Australian waters and finished while he was detained by the French in Mauritius
. Flinders explained in his letter to Banks:
Flinders continued to promote the use of the word until his arrival in London in 1810. Here he found that Banks did not approve of the name and had not unpacked the chart he had sent him, and that "New Holland" and "Terra Australis" were still in general use. As a result, a book by Flinders was published under the title A Voyage to Terra Australis
despite his objections. The final proofs were brought to him on his deathbed, but he was unconscious. The book was published on 18 July 1814, but Flinders did not regain consciousness and died the next day, never knowing that his name for the continent would be later accepted.
Banks wrote in a draft introduction to Flinders' Voyage, referring to the map published by Melchisedec Thevenot in Relations des Divers Voyages (1663), and made well-known to English readers by Emanuel Bowen’s adaptation of it, A Complete Map of the Southern Continent, published in John Campbell’s editions of John Harris's Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-48, and 1764):
In this book, Flinders wrote:
...with the accompanying note at the bottom of the page:
So Flinders had concluded that the Terra Australis
, as hypothesised by Aristotle
and Ptolemy
(which would later be discovered as Antarctica) did not exist, therefore he wanted the name applied to Australia, and it stuck.
Flinders' book was widely read and gave the term "Australia" general currency. Lachlan Macquarie
, Governor of New South Wales
, became aware of Flinders' preference for the name Australia and used it in his dispatches to England. On 12 December 1817 he recommended to the Colonial Office that it be officially adopted. In 1824 the British Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.
Flinders' name is now associated with over 100 geographical features and places in Australia in addition to Flinders Island, in Bass Strait. Flinders is seen as being particularly important in South Australia, where he is often considered the main explorer of the state. Landmarks named after him in South Australia include the Flinders mountain range and Flinders Ranges National Park
, Flinders Chase National Park
on Kangaroo Island
, Flinders University
, Flinders Medical Centre
, the suburb
Flinders Park
and Flinders Street
in Adelaide
. In Victoria, eponymous places include Flinders Street
in Melbourne
, the suburb
of Flinders
, the federal electorate of Flinders
, and the Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College
in Geelong
.
Flinders Bay
in Western Australia and Flinders Way in Canberra
also commemorate him. There is even a school named after him: Flinders Park Primary School. Another school named in his honour is Matthew Flinders Anglican College
, on the Sunshine Coast
in Queensland
. A former electoral district of the Queensland Parliament was named Flinders. There are also Flinders Highways in both Queensland
and South Australia
.
Bass & Flinders Point in the southernmost part of Cronulla
in New South Wales features a monument to George Bass and Matthew Flinders, who explored the Port Hacking
estuary.
Australia holds a large collection of statues erected in Flinders' honour, second only in number to statues of Queen Victoria
. In his native England the first statue of Flinders was erected on 16 March 2006 (his birthday) in his hometown of Donington. The statue also depicts his beloved cat Trim
, who accompanied him on his voyages.
Flinder's proposal for the use of iron bars to be used to compensate for the magnetic deviations caused by iron on board a ship resulted in them being known as Flinders bar
s.
Flinders, who was John Franklin
's uncle by marriage, instilled in him a love for navigating, and took him with him on his voyage aboard the Investigator.
In 1964 he was honoured on a postage stamp
issued by Australia Post
http://www.australianstamp.com/images/large/0007630.jpg, again in 1980 http://www.australianstamp.com/images/large/0012760.jpg, and in 1998 with George Bass
.http://www.australianstamp.com/images/large/0033520.jpg
Flindersia
is a genus of 14 species of tree in the citrus family
. Named by the Investigator's botanist, Robert Brown in honour of Matthew Flinders.
Captain (Royal Navy)
Captain is a senior officer rank of the Royal Navy. It ranks above Commander and below Commodore and has a NATO ranking code of OF-5. The rank is equivalent to a Colonel in the British Army or Royal Marines and to a Group Captain in the Royal Air Force. The rank of Group Captain is based on the...
Matthew Flinders RN
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
(16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was one of the most successful navigators and cartographers
Cartography
Cartography is the study and practice of making maps. Combining science, aesthetics, and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality can be modeled in ways that communicate spatial information effectively.The fundamental problems of traditional cartography are to:*Set the map's...
of his age. In a career that spanned just over twenty years, he sailed with Captain William Bligh
William Bligh
Vice Admiral William Bligh FRS RN was an officer of the British Royal Navy and a colonial administrator. A notorious mutiny occurred during his command of HMAV Bounty in 1789; Bligh and his loyal men made a remarkable voyage to Timor, after being set adrift in the Bounty's launch by the mutineers...
, circumnavigated Australia and encouraged the use of that name for the continent, which had previously been known as New Holland. He survived shipwreck and disaster only to be imprisoned for violating the terms of his scientific passport by changing ships and carrying prohibited papers. He identified and corrected the effect upon compass readings of iron components and equipment on board wooden ships and he wrote a work on early Australian exploration A Voyage to Terra Australis
A Voyage to Terra Australis
A Voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty's Ship the Investigator was a sea voyage journal written by English mariner and explorer Matthew Flinders...
.
Early life
Born in Donington, LincolnshireDonington, Lincolnshire
Donington is a village and civil parish in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It lies north of the market town of Spalding on the A152, and is bypassed by the A52. The parish includes the hamlet of Northorpe, and...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the son of Matthew Flinders, a surgeon, and his wife Susannah, née Ward. In his own words, he was "induced to go to sea against the wishes of my friends from reading Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
", and at the age of fifteen he joined the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
in 1789.
Initially serving on HMS Alert
HMS Alert
Sixteen ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Alert , while another was planned:...
, he transferred to HMS Scipio
HMS Scipio (1782)
HMS Scipio was a 64-gun third rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, launched on 22 October 1782 at Deptford. She was broken up in 1798....
, and in July 1790 was made midshipman
Midshipman
A midshipman is an officer cadet, or a commissioned officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Kenya...
on HMS Bellerophon
HMS Bellerophon (1786)
The first HMS Bellerophon of the Royal Navy was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line launched on 6 October 1786 at Frindsbury on the River Medway, near Chatham. She was built at the shipyard of Edward Greaves to the specifications of the Arrogant, designed by Sir Thomas Slade in 1758, the lead ship...
under Captain Pasley
Sir Thomas Pasley, 1st Baronet
Admiral Sir Thomas Pasley, 1st Baronet was a senior and highly-experienced British Royal Navy officer of the eighteenth century, who served with distinction at numerous actions of the Seven Years War, American Revolutionary War and French Revolutionary Wars...
. By Pasley's recommendation, he joined Captain Bligh's expedition on , transporting breadfruit
Breadfruit
Breadfruit is a species of flowering tree in the mulberry family, Moraceae, growing throughout Southeast Asia and most Pacific Ocean islands...
from Tahiti
Tahiti
Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...
to Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
. This was also young Flinders' first look at Australian waters landing at Adventure Bay
Adventure Bay
Adventure Bay is a bay on Bruny Island in southeastern Tasmania. Discovered in 1773 by Tobias Furneaux, it was named after his ship, HMS Adventure. James Cook explored the region in 1777, as did William Bligh in 1788 and 1792....
, Tasmania
Tasmania
Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...
in 1792. Upon his return to England, he rejoined the Bellerophon, in which he saw action at the Glorious First of June
Glorious First of June
The Glorious First of June [Note A] of 1794 was the first and largest fleet action of the naval conflict between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars...
.
First voyage to New South Wales
Flinders first trip to Port JacksonPort Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
was in 1795 as a midshipman aboard HMS Reliance
HMS Reliance (1793)
HMS Reliance was a discovery vessel of the Royal Navy. She became famous as one of the ships with the early explorations of the Australian coast and other the southern Pacific islands....
, carrying the newly appointed Governor of New South Wales Captain John Hunter
John Hunter (New South Wales)
Vice-Admiral John Hunter, RN was a British naval officer, explorer, naturalist and colonial administrator who succeeded Arthur Phillip as the second governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1795 to 1800.-Overview:...
. On this voyage he quickly established himself as a fine navigator and cartographer, and became friends with the ship's surgeon George Bass
George Bass
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...
.
Not long after their arrival in Port Jackson
Port Jackson
Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...
, Bass and Flinders made two expeditions in small open boats, both boats were called Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb
Tom Thumb is a character of English folklore. The History of Tom Thumb was published in 1621, and has the distinction of being the first fairy tale printed in English. Tom is no bigger than his father's thumb, and his adventures include being swallowed by a cow, tangling with giants, and becoming a...
: the first to Botany Bay
Botany Bay
Botany Bay is a bay in Sydney, New South Wales, a few kilometres south of the Sydney central business district. The Cooks River and the Georges River are the two major tributaries that flow into the bay...
and Georges River
Georges River
The Georges River is a waterway in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It rises to the south-west of Sydney near the coal mining town of Appin, and then flows north past Campbelltown, roughly parallel to the Main South Railway...
, the second in a larger boat south from Port Jackson to Lake Illawarra
Lake Illawarra
Lake Illawarra is a large coastal lagoon located in the city of Wollongong about 100 km south of Sydney, New South Wales.The lake receives runoff from the Illawarra escarpment through Macquarie Rivulet and Mullet Creek, and has a narrow tidal entrance to the sea at Windang...
.
by Bass and Flinders in the same year.
In 1798, Flinders, who was now a Lieutenant
Lieutenant
A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...
, was given command of the Norfolk
Norfolk (sloop)
The Colonial sloop Norfolk: “The necessity of a vessel to keep up a more frequent intercourse with Norfolk Island, …having been much felt by the want of various stores …occasioned Captain Townson, the Commanding officer, to construct a small decked boat, sloop rigged, in which he sent His letters...
and orders "to sail beyond Furneaux's Islands, and, should a strait be found, pass through it, and return by the south end of Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land
Van Diemen's Land was the original name used by most Europeans for the island of Tasmania, now part of Australia. The Dutch explorer Abel Tasman was the first European to land on the shores of Tasmania...
". The passage between the Australian mainland and Tasmania enabled savings of several days on the journey from England, and was named Bass Strait
Bass Strait
Bass Strait is a sea strait separating Tasmania from the south of the Australian mainland, specifically the state of Victoria.-Extent:The International Hydrographic Organization defines the limits of the Bass Strait as follows:...
, after his close friend. In honour of this discovery, the largest island in Bass Strait would later be named Flinders Island
Flinders Island
Flinders Island may refer to:In Australia:* Flinders Island , in the Furneaux Group, is the largest and best known* Flinders Island * Flinders Island , in the Investigator Group* Flinders Island...
. The town of Flinders
Flinders, Victoria
Flinders is a historic town south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located on the Mornington Peninsula at the point where Western Port meets Bass Strait. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula...
near the mouth of Western Port
Western Port
Western Port, is sometimes called "Western Port Bay", is a large tidal bay in southern Victoria, Australia opening into Bass Strait. It is the second largest bay in Victoria. Geographically, it is dominated by the two large islands; French Island and Phillip Island. Contrary to its name, it lies to...
also commemorates Bass' discovery of that bay and port on 4 January 1798.Flinders never entered
Western Port, and only pass Cape Schanck on the 3rd. May 1802.
Flinders once more sailed the Norfolk, this time North on 17 July 1799, he arrived in Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay
Moreton Bay is a bay on the eastern coast of Australia 45 km from Brisbane, Queensland. It is one of Queensland's most important coastal resources...
between Redcliffe
Redcliffe, Queensland
Redcliffe is a residential suburb of the Moreton Bay Region in the north-east of the Redcliffe peninsula, approximately north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia...
and Brighton
Brighton, Queensland
Brighton is the northernmost suburb of Brisbane City, Australia, located 19 km north of the Brisbane CBD. The Nashville locality makes up much of the southwest of the suburb.Brighton features mostly suburban housing...
. He touched down at Pumicestone Passage, Redcliffe and Coochiemudlo Island and also rowed ashore at Clontarf
Clontarf, Queensland
Clontarf is a residential and light industrial suburb of the Moreton Bay Region in the south-west of the Redcliffe peninsula, approximately north-northeast of Brisbane, the state capital of Queensland, Australia.-Attractions and features:...
. During this visit he named Redcliffe after the Red Cliffs.
In March 1800, Flinders rejoined the Reliance which set sail for England.
Command of the Investigator
Flinders' work had come to the attention of many of the scientists of the day, in particular the influential Sir Joseph Banks, to whom Flinders dedicated his Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen's Land, on Bass's Strait, etc.. Banks used his influence with Earl SpencerGeorge Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer
George John Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer KG PC FRS FSA , styled Viscount Althorp from 1765 to 1783, was a British Whig politician...
to convince the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
of the importance of an expedition to chart the coastline of New Holland. As a result, in January 1801, Flinders was given command of the Investigator, a 334-ton sloop, and promoted to Commander
Commander
Commander is a naval rank which is also sometimes used as a military title depending on the individual customs of a given military service. Commander is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the armed forces, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Commander as a naval...
the following month.
The Investigator set sail for New Holland on 18 July 1801. Attached to the expedition was the botanist Robert Brown
Robert Brown (botanist)
Robert Brown was a Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist who made important contributions to botany largely through his pioneering use of the microscope...
, botanical artist Ferdinand Bauer
Ferdinand Bauer
Ferdinand Lucas Bauer was an Austrian botanical illustrator who travelled on Matthew Flinders' expedition to Australia.-Biography:...
and landscape artist William Westall
William Westall (artist)
William Westall was an English landscape artist best known as one of the first artists to work in Australia.-Early life:Westall was born in Hertford, England, but grew up in London, mostly Sydenham and Hampstead...
. Due to the scientific nature of the expedition, Flinders was issued with a French passport, despite England and France then being at war
War of the Second Coalition
The "Second Coalition" was the second attempt by European monarchs, led by the Habsburg Monarchy of Austria and the Russian Empire, to contain or eliminate Revolutionary France. They formed a new alliance and attempted to roll back France's previous military conquests...
.
Family
On 17 April 1801, Flinders had married longtime friend Ann Chappelle (1772–1852). Flinders hoped to bring her with him to Port Jackson contrary to the Admiralty's rules against wives accompanying captains. Despite these rules, Flinders brought her on board and meant to take her to Australia, though his attempt was discovered when his ship ran aground while they were below deck, subsequently he was chastised by the Admiralty. As a result, she was obliged to stay in England, and they would not see each other for nine years.Matthew and Ann had one daughter, Anne, born 1 April 1812, who later married William Petrie (1821 - 1908) and was the mother of the eminent archaeologist and
Egyptologist, William Matthew Flinders Petrie.
Exploration of the Australian coastline
Cape Leeuwin
Cape Leeuwin is the most south-westerly mainland point of the Australian Continent, in the state of Western Australia.A few small islands and rocks, the St Alouarn Islands, extend further to the south. The nearest settlement, north of the cape, is Augusta. South-east of Cape Leeuwin, the coast...
on 6 December 1801, and proceeded to make a survey along the southern coast of the Australian mainland.
On 8 April 1802 while sailing east Flinders sighted the Géographe
French corvette Géographe
The Géographe was a 20-gun Serpente class corvette of the French Navy.She was named Uranie in 1797, and renamed Galatée in 1799, still on her building site, as her builder refused to launched her, as he had not been paid...
, a French corvette commanded by the explorer Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas Baudin
Nicolas-Thomas Baudin was a French explorer, cartographer, naturalist and hydrographer.Baudin was born a commoner in Saint-Martin-de-Ré on the Île de Ré. At the age of fifteen he joined the merchant navy, and at twenty joined the French East India Company...
, who was on a similar expedition
Baudin expedition of 1800 to 1802
The Baudin expedition of 1800 to 1803 was a French expedition to map the coast of Australia. Nicolas Baudin was selected as leader in October 1800...
for his government. Both men of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
, Flinders and Baudin met and exchanged details of their discoveries, Flinders named the bay Encounter Bay
Encounter Bay
Encounter Bay is located on the south central coast of South Australia, some 100 km south of Adelaide, South Australia. It is named after the encounter on 8 April 1802 between Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin, both of whom were charting the Australian coastline for their respective countries...
.
Proceeding along the coast, Flinders explored Port Phillip
Port Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
, which unbeknownst to him had been discovered only 10 weeks earlier by John Murray
John Murray (Australian explorer)
John Murray was a seaman and explorer of Australia. He was the first European to discover Port Phillip, the bay on which the cities of Melbourne and Geelong are situated....
aboard the Lady Nelson
Lady Nelson
The Royal Navy purchased Lady Nelson in 1799. She spent her career exploring the coast of Australia in the early years of the 19th century. She was the first known vessel to sail eastward through Bass Strait, the first to sail along the South coast of Victoria, as well as the first to enter Port...
. Flinders scaled Arthur's Seat, the highest point near the shores of the southernmost parts of the bay, where the ship had entered through The Heads
The Rip
"The Rip", also known as "The Heads", is a dangerous stretch of water in Victoria, Australia, connecting Port Phillip and Bass Strait. It is the only entrance for shipping into Port Phillip and hence into Melbourne. Because of large tidal flows through the relatively narrow channel from the bay to...
. From there he saw a vast view of the surrounding land and bays. Flinders reported back to Governor King that the land had 'a pleasing and, in many parts, a fertile appearance'. He stated on 1 May, "I left the ship's name on a scroll of paper, deposited in a small pile of stones upon the top of the peak". Here, Flinders was drawing upon a British tradition of constructing a stone cairn
Cairn
Cairn is a term used mainly in the English-speaking world for a man-made pile of stones. It comes from the or . Cairns are found all over the world in uplands, on moorland, on mountaintops, near waterways and on sea cliffs, and also in barren desert and tundra areas...
to mark a historical location. The Matthew Flinders Cairn, which was later enlarged, is located on the upper slopes of Arthurs Seat a short distance below Chapman's Point.
With stores running low, Flinders proceeded to Sydney, arriving 9 May 1802.
Having hastily prepared the ship, Flinders set sail again on 22 July, heading north and surveying the coast of Queensland. From there he passed through the Torres Strait
Torres Strait
The Torres Strait is a body of water which lies between Australia and the Melanesian island of New Guinea. It is approximately wide at its narrowest extent. To the south is Cape York Peninsula, the northernmost continental extremity of the Australian state of Queensland...
, and explored the Gulf of Carpentaria
Gulf of Carpentaria
The Gulf of Carpentaria is a large, shallow sea enclosed on three sides by northern Australia and bounded on the north by the Arafura Sea...
. During this time, the ship was discovered to be badly leaking, and despite careening
Careening
Careening a sailing vessel is the practice of beaching it at high tide. This is usually done in order to expose one side or another of the ship's hull for maintenance and repairs below the water line when the tide goes out....
, they were unable to effect the necessary repairs. Reluctantly, Flinders returned to Sydney, though via the western coast, completing the circumnavigation of the continent. On the way, Flinders jettisoned two wrought iron anchors, one of which was found by divers in 1973 at Middle Island, Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia
Western Australia
Western Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Great Australian Bight and Indian Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east and South Australia to the south-east...
. This anchor may be seen at the National Museum of Australia
National Museum of Australia
The National Museum of Australia was formally established by the National Museum of Australia Act 1980. The National Museum preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation....
. Arriving in Sydney 9 June 1803, the Investigator was subsequently judged to be unseaworthy and condemned.
Attempted return to England and imprisonment
Unable to find another vessel suitable to continue his exploration, Flinders set sail for England as a passenger aboard HMS PorpoiseHMS Porpoise (1799)
HMS Porpoise was a 10-gun sloop originally built in Bilbao, Spain, as the packet ship Infanta Amelia. She was 308 tons, 93ft long on the gun deck and a beam of 27ft, 11 inches. On 6 August 1799 HMS Argo captured her off the coast of Portugal...
. However the ship was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef
Great Barrier Reef
The Great Barrier Reef is the world'slargest reef system composed of over 2,900 individual reefs and 900 islands stretching for over 2,600 kilometres over an area of approximately...
, approximately 700 miles (1127 km) north of Sydney. Flinders navigated the ship's cutter across open sea back to Sydney, and arranged for the rescue of the remaining marooned crew.
Flinders then took command of the 29-ton schooner Cumberland
HMS Cumberland (1803)
HMS Cumberland was a 29 ton schooner built in Port Jackson, Australia, by Henry Moore in 1801. Under the command of Acting Lieutenant Charles Robbin, she was used for Charles Grimes survey of King Island and Port Phillip in early 1803. She was purchased in 1803 to convey Matthew Flinders to England...
in order to return to England, but the poor condition of the vessel forced him to put in at French-controlled Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
for repairs on 17 December 1803.
War with France
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
had broken out again the previous May, but Flinders hoped his French passport (though for a different vessel) and the scientific nature of his mission would allow him to continue on his way. Despite this, and the knowledge of Baudin's earlier encounter with Flinders, the French governor, Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, was suspicious and detained Flinders. The relationship between the men soured: Flinders was affronted at his treatment, and Decaen insulted by Flinders' refusal of an invitation to dine with him and his wife. Decaen's search of Flinders' vessel uncovered a trunk full of papers from the governor of New South Wales that were not permitted under his scientific passport.
Decaen referred the matter to the French government, which was delayed not only by the long voyage, but also by the general confusion of war. Eventually on 11 March 1806, Napoleon gave his approval, but Decaen still refused to allow Flinders' release. It has been suggested that by this stage Decaen believed Flinders' knowledge of the island's defences would have encouraged Britain to attempt to capture it. Nevertheless, in June 1809 the Royal Navy began a blockade of the island, and in June 1810 Flinders was paroled. Travelling via the Cape of Good Hope
Cape of Good Hope
The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...
, he received a promotion to Post-Captain
Post-Captain
Post-captain is an obsolete alternative form of the rank of captain in the Royal Navy.The term served to distinguish those who were captains by rank from:...
, before continuing to England.
Flinders had been confined for the first few months of his captivity, however he was later afforded greater freedoms to move around the island and access his papers. In November 1804 Flinders sent the first map of the landmass he had charted (Y46/1) back to England. This was the only map made by Flinders, where he used the name "Australia" in all capitals for the title, and the first known time Flinders used the word "Australia".
Flinders finally returned to England in October 1810 in poor health and immediately resumed work preparing "A Voyage to Terra Australis" and his Atlas of maps for publication. The full title of this book which was first published in London in July 1814 was given, as was common at the time, a synoptic description: "A Voyage to Terra Australis : undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country, and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803 in His Majesty's ship the Investigator, and subsequently in the armed vessel Porpoise and Cumberland Schooner. With an account of the shipwreck of the Porpoise, arrival of the Cumberland at Mauritius, and imprisonment of the commander during six years and a half in that island" . Original copies of the "Atlas to Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis" are held at the Mitchell Library
Mitchell Library
The Mitchell Library is a large public library and centre of the public library system of Glasgow, Scotland.-History:The library was established with a bequest from Stephen Mitchell, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer, whose company, Stephen Mitchell & Son, would become one of the constituent members...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
as a portfolio that accompanied the book and included engravings of 16 maps, and 4 plates of views, and 10 plates of Australian flora.
The book was republished in 3 volumes in 1964 accompanied by a reproduction of the portfolio. Flinders' map of Terra Australia was first published in January 1814 and the remaining maps where published before his atlas and book. On 19 July 1814, the day after the book and atlas was published, Matthew Flinders died, aged 40.
On 12 April 1812 he and his wife had had a daughter who became Mrs. William Petrie; in 1853 the governments of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
bequeathed a belated pension to her (deceased) mother of £100 per year, to go to surviving issue of the union. This she, Mrs. Anne (née Flinders) Petrie (1812–1892), accepted on behalf of her young son, named William Matthew Flinders Petrie
William Matthew Flinders Petrie
William Matthew Flinders Petrie FRS , commonly known as Flinders Petrie, was an English Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and preservation of artifacts...
, who would go on to become an accomplished archaeologist and Egyptologist.
Naming Australia
Alexander Dalrymple
Alexander Dalrymple was a Scottish geographer and the first Hydrographer of the British Admiralty. He was the main proponent of the theory that there existed a vast undiscovered continent in the South Pacific, Terra Australis Incognita...
's 1771 book An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, and it seems likely he borrowed it from there, but he applied it specifically to the continent, not the whole South Pacific region. In 1804 he wrote to his brother: "I call the whole island Australia, or Terra Australis" and later that year he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks
Joseph Banks
Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, GCB, PRS was an English naturalist, botanist and patron of the natural sciences. He took part in Captain James Cook's first great voyage . Banks is credited with the introduction to the Western world of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa and the genus named after him,...
and mentioned "my general chart of Australia." That 92 cm x 72 cm chart, made in 1804, was the first time Australia was used to name the landmass we know today. A map Flinders constructed from all the information he had accumulated while he was in Australian waters and finished while he was detained by the French in Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
. Flinders explained in his letter to Banks:
The propriety of the name Australia or Terra Australis, which I have applied to the whole body of what has generally been called New Holland, must be submitted to the approbation of the Admiralty and the learned in geography. It seems to me an inconsistent thing that captain Cooks New South Wales should be absorbed in the New Holland of the Dutch, and therefore I have reverted to the original name Terra Australis or the Great South Land, by which it was distinguished even by the Dutch during the 17th century; for it appears that it was not until some time after Tasmans second voyage that the name New Holland was first applied, and then it was long before it displaced T’Zuydt Landt in the charts, and could not extend to what was not yet known to have existence; New South Wales, therefore, ought to remain distinct from New Holland; but as it is requisite that the whole body should have one general name, since it is now known (if there is no great error in the Dutch part) that it is certainly all one land, so I judge, that one less exceptionable to all parties and on all accounts cannot be found than that now applied.
Flinders continued to promote the use of the word until his arrival in London in 1810. Here he found that Banks did not approve of the name and had not unpacked the chart he had sent him, and that "New Holland" and "Terra Australis" were still in general use. As a result, a book by Flinders was published under the title A Voyage to Terra Australis
A Voyage to Terra Australis
A Voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty's Ship the Investigator was a sea voyage journal written by English mariner and explorer Matthew Flinders...
despite his objections. The final proofs were brought to him on his deathbed, but he was unconscious. The book was published on 18 July 1814, but Flinders did not regain consciousness and died the next day, never knowing that his name for the continent would be later accepted.
Banks wrote in a draft introduction to Flinders' Voyage, referring to the map published by Melchisedec Thevenot in Relations des Divers Voyages (1663), and made well-known to English readers by Emanuel Bowen’s adaptation of it, A Complete Map of the Southern Continent, published in John Campbell’s editions of John Harris's Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744-48, and 1764):
It was not until after Tasman's second voyage, in 1644, that the general name Terra Australis, or Great South Land, was made to give place to the new term of New Holland; and it was then applied only to the parts lying westward of a meridian line, passing through Arnhem's Land on the north, and near the Isles St Peter and St Francis on the south: All to the eastward, including the shores of the Gulph of Carpentaria, still remained Terra Australis. This appears from a chart by Thevenot in 1663, which he says "was originally taken from that done in inlaid work upon the pavement of the new Stadt House at Amsterdam". It is necessary, however, to geographical precision that the whole of this great body of land should be distinguished by one general term, and under the circumstances of the discovery of the different parts, the original Terra Australis has been judged the most proper. Of this term, therefore, we shall hereafter make use when speaking of New Holland and New South Wales in a collective sense; and when using it in an extensive signification, the adjacent isles, including that of Van Diemen, must be understood to be comprehended.
In this book, Flinders wrote:
- "There is no probability, that any other detached body of land, of nearly equal extent, will ever be found in a more southern latitude; the name Terra Australis will, therefore, remain descriptive of the geographical importance of this country, and of its situation on the globe: it has antiquity to recommend it; and, having no reference to either of the two claiming nations, appears to be less objectionable than any other which could have been selected.*"
...with the accompanying note at the bottom of the page:
- "* Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term, it would have been to convert it into Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth."
So Flinders had concluded that the Terra Australis
Terra Australis
Terra Australis, Terra Australis Ignota or Terra Australis Incognita was a hypothesized continent appearing on European maps from the 15th to the 18th century...
, as hypothesised by Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and Ptolemy
Ptolemy
Claudius Ptolemy , was a Roman citizen of Egypt who wrote in Greek. He was a mathematician, astronomer, geographer, astrologer, and poet of a single epigram in the Greek Anthology. He lived in Egypt under Roman rule, and is believed to have been born in the town of Ptolemais Hermiou in the...
(which would later be discovered as Antarctica) did not exist, therefore he wanted the name applied to Australia, and it stuck.
Flinders' book was widely read and gave the term "Australia" general currency. Lachlan Macquarie
Lachlan Macquarie
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...
, Governor of New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
, became aware of Flinders' preference for the name Australia and used it in his dispatches to England. On 12 December 1817 he recommended to the Colonial Office that it be officially adopted. In 1824 the British Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.
Legacy
Flinders Ranges National Park
The Flinders Ranges National Park is situated approximately 400 km north of Adelaide in the northern central part of South Australia's largest mountain range, the Flinders Ranges. The park covers an area of 912 km², northeast of the small town of Hawker...
, Flinders Chase National Park
Flinders Chase National Park
Flinders Chase is a national park on Kangaroo Island, South Australia, 213 km southwest of Adelaide. It is a sanctuary for endangered species and home to a few geological phenomena....
on Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island is Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Island. It is southwest of Adelaide at the entrance of Gulf St Vincent. Its closest point to the mainland is off Cape Jervis, on the tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula in the state of South Australia. The island is long...
, Flinders University
Flinders University
Flinders University, , is a public university in Adelaide, South Australia. Founded in 1966, it was named in honour of navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in the early 19th century.The university has established a reputation as a leading research...
, Flinders Medical Centre
Flinders Medical Centre
Flinders Medical Centre is a 580 bed public teaching hospital and medical school, co-located with Flinders University and the 130 bed Flinders Private Hospital located at Bedford Park, South Australia. It opened in 1976. It is one of the major public hospitals operating in metropolitan Adelaide...
, the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
Flinders Park
Flinders Park, South Australia
Flinders Park is a western suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is located in the City of Charles Sturt.-History:The suburb is named after explorer Matthew Flinders, with many of its streets bearing the names of famous explorers.-Geography:...
and Flinders Street
Flinders Street, Adelaide
Flinders Street is a main street in the CBD of the centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It was the location of Flinders St Schoolf of Music, a campus of TAFE, but has been closed in the last decade. It is named after the navigator and cartographer Captain Matthew Flinders....
in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
. In Victoria, eponymous places include Flinders Street
Flinders Street, Melbourne
Flinders Street is a notable street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Running roughly parallel to the Yarra River, Flinders Street forms the southern edge of the Hoddle Grid. It is exactly one mile in length and one and half chains in width...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, the suburb
Suburb
The word suburb mostly refers to a residential area, either existing as part of a city or as a separate residential community within commuting distance of a city . Some suburbs have a degree of administrative autonomy, and most have lower population density than inner city neighborhoods...
of Flinders
Flinders, Victoria
Flinders is a historic town south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, located on the Mornington Peninsula at the point where Western Port meets Bass Strait. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula...
, the federal electorate of Flinders
Division of Flinders
The Division of Flinders is an Australian Electoral Division in Victoria. The division was one of the original 75 divisions contested at the first federal election...
, and the Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College
Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College
Matthew Flinders Girls' Secondary College is an all-girls high school located in Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It provides education for students years 7-12.-History:The school opened as Flinders National Grammar School in January 1858....
in Geelong
Geelong, Victoria
Geelong is a port city located on Corio Bay and the Barwon River, in the state of Victoria, Australia, south-west of the state capital; Melbourne. It is the second most populated city in Victoria and the fifth most populated non-capital city in Australia...
.
Flinders Bay
Flinders Bay
Flinders Bay is a bay and locality that is immediately south of the townsite of Augusta, Western Australia, and close to the mouth of the Blackwood River and lies to the north east of Cape Leeuwin.-Bay:Flinders Bay...
in Western Australia and Flinders Way in Canberra
Canberra
Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...
also commemorate him. There is even a school named after him: Flinders Park Primary School. Another school named in his honour is Matthew Flinders Anglican College
Matthew Flinders Anglican College
Matthew Flinders Anglican College is an independent, co-educational day school located on Queensland's Sunshine Coast in Buderim, approximately north of Brisbane. It has grown from an enrolment of 160 students in its foundation year, 1990, to over 1200 today. It includes a Primary School and a...
, on the Sunshine Coast
Sunshine Coast, Queensland
The Sunshine Coast is an urban area in South East Queensland, north of the state capital of Brisbane on the Pacific Ocean coastline. Although it does not have a central business district, by population it ranks as the 10th largest metropolis in Australia and the third largest in...
in Queensland
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
. A former electoral district of the Queensland Parliament was named Flinders. There are also Flinders Highways in both Queensland
Flinders Highway, Queensland
Flinders Highway is a highway that crosses Queensland from east to west, from Townsville on the Pacific coast to Cloncurry . Flinders Highway and passes a number of small outback towns. Typical outback landscape predominates towards the inland...
and South Australia
Flinders Highway, South Australia
Flinders Highway connects the South Australian towns of Ceduna and Port Lincoln, a distance of 410 kilometres. The highway was formerly designated as National Route Alternate 1 and currently signed as B100...
.
Cronulla, New South Wales
Cronulla is a beachside suburb, in southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Cronulla is located 26 kilometres south of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of Sutherland Shire....
in New South Wales features a monument to George Bass and Matthew Flinders, who explored the Port Hacking
Port Hacking
Port Hacking is an Australian estuary, located in Southern Sydney, New South Wales and fed by the Hacking River and several smaller creeks, including Bundeena Creek and The Basin. It is a ria, a river basin which has become submerged by the sea...
estuary.
Australia holds a large collection of statues erected in Flinders' honour, second only in number to statues of Queen Victoria
Victoria of the United Kingdom
Victoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
. In his native England the first statue of Flinders was erected on 16 March 2006 (his birthday) in his hometown of Donington. The statue also depicts his beloved cat Trim
Trim (cat)
Trim was a ship's cat that accompanied Matthew Flinders on his voyages to circumnavigate and map the coastline of Australia in 1801-03.Trim was born in 1799, aboard HMS Reliance on a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Botany Bay...
, who accompanied him on his voyages.
Flinder's proposal for the use of iron bars to be used to compensate for the magnetic deviations caused by iron on board a ship resulted in them being known as Flinders bar
Flinders bar
A Flinders bar is a vertical soft iron bar placed in a tube on the fore side of a compass binnacle. The Flinders bar is used to counteract the vertical magnetism inherent within a ship and is usually calibrated as part of the process known as swinging the compass, where deviations caused by this...
s.
Flinders, who was John Franklin
John Franklin
Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin KCH FRGS RN was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer. Franklin also served as governor of Tasmania for several years. In his last expedition, he disappeared while attempting to chart and navigate a section of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic...
's uncle by marriage, instilled in him a love for navigating, and took him with him on his voyage aboard the Investigator.
In 1964 he was honoured on a postage stamp
Postage stamp
A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...
issued by Australia Post
Australia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
http://www.australianstamp.com/images/large/0007630.jpg, again in 1980 http://www.australianstamp.com/images/large/0012760.jpg, and in 1998 with George Bass
George Bass
George Bass was a British naval surgeon and explorer of Australia.-Early years:He was born on 30 January 1771 at Aswarby, a hamlet near Sleaford, Lincolnshire, the son of a tenant farmer, George Bass, and a local beauty named Sarah Nee Newman. His father died in 1777 when Bass was 6...
.http://www.australianstamp.com/images/large/0033520.jpg
Flindersia
Flindersia
Flindersia is a genus of 14 species of tree in the family Rutaceae. They are native to the Moluccas, New Guinea, Australia and New Caledonia.They are cultivated and planted for both timber and as a street tree...
is a genus of 14 species of tree in the citrus family
Rutaceae
Rutaceae, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, is a family of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.Species of the family generally have flowers that divide into four or five parts, usually with strong scents...
. Named by the Investigator's botanist, Robert Brown in honour of Matthew Flinders.
Works
- A Voyage to Terra Australis, with an accompanying AtlasA Voyage to Terra AustralisA Voyage to Terra Australis: Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803, in His Majesty's Ship the Investigator was a sea voyage journal written by English mariner and explorer Matthew Flinders...
. 2 vol. – London : G & W Nicol, 18. July 1814 (the day before Flinders' death) - Trim: Being the True Story of a Brave Seafaring Cat.
- Private Journal 1803-1814. Edited with an introduction by Anthony J. Brown and Gillian Dooley. Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2005.
See also
- Flinders barFlinders barA Flinders bar is a vertical soft iron bar placed in a tube on the fore side of a compass binnacle. The Flinders bar is used to counteract the vertical magnetism inherent within a ship and is usually calibrated as part of the process known as swinging the compass, where deviations caused by this...
- List of explorers
- Trim (cat)Trim (cat)Trim was a ship's cat that accompanied Matthew Flinders on his voyages to circumnavigate and map the coastline of Australia in 1801-03.Trim was born in 1799, aboard HMS Reliance on a voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Botany Bay...
- European and American voyages of scientific explorationEuropean and American voyages of scientific explorationThe era of European and American voyages of scientific exploration followed the Age of Discovery and were inspired by a new confidence in science and reason that arose in the Age of Enlightenment...
External links
- Flinders, Matthew (1774-1814) National Library of Australia, Trove, People and Organisation record for Matthew Flinders
- The Matthew Flinders Electronic Archive at the State Library of New South WalesState Library of New South WalesThe State Library of New South Wales is a large public library owned by the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located in Macquarie Street, Sydney near Shakespeare Place...
. - The Flinders Papers and Charts by Matthew Flinders at the UK National Maritime MuseumNational Maritime MuseumThe National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...
- Related literature (Project Gutenberg AustraliaProject Gutenberg AustraliaProject Gutenberg Australia, abbreviated as PGA, is an Internet site which was founded in 2001 by Colin Choat. The site hosts free ebooks or e-texts which are in the public domain in Australia. The ebooks have been prepared and submitted by volunteers...
). - Flinders Providence Logbook
- Naming of Australia
- Matthew Flinders' map of Australia High resolution image of the complete map.
- Another view of the statue of Matthew Flinders in his village of birth Donington, Lincs
- detail of Trim the cat
- Flinder's Journeys - State Library of NSW
- Biography at BBC Radio Lincolnshire
- Voyages of Captain Matthew Flinders in Australia Google Earth Virtual Tour
- Digitised copies of Flinder's logs at the British Atmospheric Data Centre