This story was written by Rod Carter

Matthew Flinders first came to Australia in 1795 as a midshipman on the vessel that brought Captain Hunter back to Australia as the Governor to succeed Arthur Phillip. Flinders became very friendly with George Bass who was the surgeon on the ship and they planned an expedition they would embark upon when they reached Port Jackson. Just one month after they arrived in Sydney Harbour they purchased a small eight foot boat they named the Tom Thumb and set out to explore the coast south from Port Jackson.

Matthew looked after the sail and George steered the craft while a boy baled out the water. They tacked to and fro across Port Jackson until they knew how the small ship would handle, then out through the heads and south into the ocean. They made port in Botany Bay. Here they sailed up a river which they named the George River. When they returned to Sydney, Flinders was sent on a surveying expedition and Bass attempted to cross the Blue Mountains.

Flinders and Bass then petitioned Governor Hunter to commission an expedition to explore the coast south from Botany Bay. The Governor gave them a whaleboat, a crew of eight, provisions for six weeks, and they set off again through the heads, the first port of call being the Shoalhaven River. They charted and named Jervis Bay and Twofold Bay and then Cape Howe (which was Cook's landfall in 1770). The two friends followed the coast southwest until they found the excellent harbour of Westernport Bay. Here, encountering heavy seas rolling in from the west, Flinders formed a compelling theory that Van Diemen's Land was not part of Australia.

After the expedition returned to Sydney, Governor Hunter put the Norfolk under the command of Flinders with instructions to complete the survey of the southern coast. Bass and Flinders left Sydney on 7th October 1798, and on the 4th November sighted the northern tip of Van Diemen's Land. Sailing on they charted and named Port Dalrymple and the Tamar River then continued right round the island, solving the problem that had baffled navigators for many years. They returned to Sydney Cove and Bass then joined a boat to return to England. However the boat never reached its destination and he was not heard of again.

On 8th July 1799 Flinders made a quick trip in the Norfolk to chart the area around Cape Moreton which Cook had named as he sailed past in 1770. By 10th July Flinders was off Point Lookout (which was also named by Cook) and, sailing north for a few miles, he named Flinders Reef. He then went into a bay which he called Moreton Bay and anchored two miles from the low sandy shore on the west side of Moreton Island. The bearings indicate that this would be about two miles east of where Redcliffe now stands.

Flinders anchored in Moreton Bay on 16th July and then explored thirty-four miles down into the bay. He charted the six islands in Moreton Bay calling them simply Number 1 island, Number 2, 3, 4 and 5. They were later named, in that order, Mud Island, St Helena, Green Island, Peel Island, Goat Island and Number 6, now known as Coochiemudlo, where he landed Thursday 18th July 1799. He missed the entrance to the Brisbane River when he sailed north again. On 18th and 19th he steered for Pumicestone River that we now know as Pumicestone Passage. The next day he looked for a spot on what we now call Bribie Island in order to beach the Norfolk and repair the leaky seams with oakum.

Tuesday and Wednesday were taken up with this repair work and on Thursday 25th he went two or three miles up what he thought was the Pumicestone River. The following day he left the Norfolk and, accompanied by two sailors and a native interpreter, walked the nine miles to reach the top of one of the mountains. From here the view of Moreton Bay and the surrounding area was very impressive. About two thirds of the way home, the sun being over the yardarm, he camped the night beside a little fresh water stream. He was back on the Norfolk by the 27th July.

On Sunday 28th he proceeded back down the river and followed around the coast line to the north on what is now known as Bribie Island. Flinders followed Bribie northward till 31st July when he moved out to sea to proceed to Hervey Bay.

He sailed north for two days until he reached Sandy Cape, also named by Cook. Sandy Cape is the most northerly point on what we now know as Fraser Island. Flinders turned west into Hervey Bay (or Harvey Bay as he called it on his charts) but had a lot of trouble locating a suitable channel for his little sloop. However he eventually found a way in and stayed in Hervey Bay till 8th August but was not impressed with the land for a future settlement. He cleared Hervey Bay and made course for home, reaching Port Jackson on 12th August 1799 where he handed in his charts and reports to the Governor.

Matthew Flinders was then promoted to a full lieutenant in the Royal Navy and put in command of the Investigator. He was one of the most untiring and adventurous of the navigators in Australian waters, and in 1802 he was the first to circumnavigate Australia. He returned to Port Jackson and the ship was fitted out to make accurate surveys of the coast. Flinders and the Investigator then sailed north from Sydney Cove accompanied by a tender named Lady Nelson, which did the actual surveying at each stop.

They examined in detail Hervey Bay, Port Curtis, Keppel Bay, Port Bowen and Shoal Water Bay, which had originally been imperfectly surveyed by Captain Cook. He spent some time at the Murray Islands where he befriended the natives and exchanged goods, before following in Cook’s wake through Torres Strait. He was proceeding westwards when a large body of water was seen on the port side. This was the Gulf of Carpentaria. Flinders sailed down the eastern coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria, following the track of the early Dutch navigators. By this time the Investigator was beginning to show symptoms of breaking up and there was scarcely a sound timber remaining in her hull.

On 5th March 1803 Flinders left the inhospitable shores of the gulf and made for Timor where he was provided with an abundance of provisions allowing him to return to Port Jackson. However many of his sailors had dysentery before Investigator reached home-port.

Flinders immediately made application for another vessel to complete his explorations in the North. The Governor had no other vessel to give him and the Investigator was ready to scrap. Flinders decided to return to England and ask the Admiralty for a ship. He left Sydney at the end of July on the Porpoise, which was accompanied by two trading vessels the Cato and the Bridgewater. While passing through Torres Strait the Porpoise and the Cato struck a coral reef and both vessels sank. Bridgewater sailed off without offering any assistance to the two stranded ships.

Flinders took command and landed the two crews on a sandbank which was the only one clear at high tide. He erected tents, collected stores and formed an encampment that was to last for many months. From the wrecked ships they built a cutter that Flinders commanded, and he left the reef with a small crew on 26th August. They reached Sydney on 6th September 1803.

Flinders begged the Governor to provide him with another ship and eventually he was given a leaky schooner of 29 tons named the Cumberland. He set sail immediately to rescue the remainder of the shipwrecked crews and then decided to proceed to England in this miserable craft.

Off the coast of Mauritius the leaky state of the Cumberland compelled him to put in for repairs. Unfortunately Mauritius was a French possession and Flinders, unaware when he landed that a state of war existed between England and France, was detained there as a prisoner for six years. During his detention a French navigator named Baudin called at the island, and is said to have taken copies of Flinders charts which, on returning to France, he published as if they were his own.

In 1810 Flinders was released from prison and returned to England and his patiently waiting wife. Her story has been very aptly told in Ernestine Hill's My Love Must Wait.

Today the name of Flinders stands next to Cook on the illustrious roll of the founders of Australia. In the 1950s, sailors travelling up the east coast of Australia were still using the charts that he drew up during his 1798 to 1802 explorations. Flinders sought no reward nor received any honours, and he died comparatively unknown. However he left a name which the world is every year more and more disposed to honour.

Flinders spent four years writing the great book The Voyages to Terra Australis, which became a classic and gave to Australia its name. However his health was so seriously injured by his hardships and imprisonment that he died, just as his book was being published in 1814.

Written by Rod Carter

Acknowledgement: The Voyages to Terra Australis by Matthew Flinders