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Voyages of Matthew Flinders

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Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was an English navigator who led the first inshore navigation of inland Australia.

Understand [ edit ]

Captain Matthew Flinders was an English navigator, cartographer and officer of the Royal Navy who led the second circumnavigation of New Holland, that he would subsequently call "Australia", and identified it as a continent. Flinders made three voyages to the southern ocean between 1791 and 1810. In the second voyage, George Bass and Flinders confirmed that Van Diemen's Land was an island. In the third voyage, Flinders circumnavigated the Australian mainland; heading back to England in 1803, Flinders' vessel needed urgent repairs at Isle de France . Although Britain and France were at war, Flinders thought the scientific nature of his work would ensure safe passage, but a suspicious governor kept him under arrest for more than six years. Although he reached home in 1810, he did not live to see the success of his widely praised book and atlas, A Voyage to Terra Australis . The location of his grave was lost by the mid-19th century, but archaeologists excavating a former burial ground near London 's Euston railway station for the High Speed 2 (HS2) project, announced in January 2019 that his remains had been identified. Flinders' remains will be reinterred in the parish Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood in Donington on Bain , Lincolnshire, where he was baptised, on 13th July 2024. While largely forgotten in his home country England, he is a household name in Australia , where over 100 places and monuments have been named after him.

See [ edit ]

Map

  • -34.921146 138.600671 1 Matthew Flinders Memorial , North Terrace, Adelaide , South Australia . Flinders is seen as being particularly important in South Australia, where he is considered the main explorer of the state. His statue stands on an attractive, tree-lined boulevard in a South Australian colonial tradition.  
  • -34.072688 151.15439 4 Bass and Flinders Memorial , Cronulla , New South Wales ( south along the beachfront esplanade from South Cronulla Beach ). Bass and Flinders discovered the Port Hacking waterway around Cronulla. A memorial to them and explanation of their journey is on the headland near the entrance to Port Hacking. Nice views across the river and ocean from here.  
  • -25.2893 152.908 5 Matthew Flinders' Lookout , Urangan , Queensland . Commemorates Flinders' explorations of the Hervey Bay area. ( updated May 2020 )

See also [ edit ]

  • Voyages of James Cook
  • Voyages of George Vancouver

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  • From Terra Australis to Australia

Matthew Flinders' journeys

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Matthew Flinders, (1774-1814), was the first man to circumnavigate Australia. His charts were so accurate that some are still in use to this day.

After sailing with the famous Captain Bligh on the Providence , Flinders' adventures brought him to Australia onboard the  Reliance . In 1796 he explored the coastline around Sydney in a tiny open boat called  Tom Thumb . He next proved that Tasmania was an island by finding and sailing through Bass Strait.

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matthew flinders travel

His most successful voyage came between 1801 and 1803 when he charted the coastline of Australia, completing and linking together other partial surveys to give us the first complete picture of our island nation. 

Flinders recorded his voyage on the HMS Investigator . Read more about his circumnavigation in the journals he kept on board the ship:

Matthew Flinders - journal on HMS Investigator, Volume 1, 1801-1802 Matthew Flinders - journal on HMS Investigator, Volume 2, 1802-1803

Flinders was later shipwrecked on the Great Barrier Reef. Remarkably, he managed to navigate the ship's cutter across open sea back to Sydney, a distance of some 700 miles, and arranged for the rescue of the marooned crew on Wreck Reef.

On the return to England in 1803 Flinders stopped off in Mauritius for repairs. Away at sea and without news, he was not aware that England and France were now at war and he was arrested as a spy on arrival in this French colony. His incarceration would last almost 7 years.

Later that year he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks mentioning "my general chart of Australia." He continued to promote the name but could not convince Banks to endorse it. As a result, Flinders' book was published under the title  A Voyage to Terra Australis. The day after his book was published in 1814, Matthew Flinders died, aged only 40, but already with an indelible place in Australian history.'

Flinders lasting legacy is the name 'Australia' he gave to our country. He wrote to his brother:  "I call the whole island Australia, or Terra Australis."

  Read a private journal kept by Matthew Flinders while a prisoner in Mauritius

Matthew Flinders' mementos

matthew flinders travel

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This coat or sash badge appears to date from after 1812, when the Royal Navy introduced a new button design, which incorporated a crown above the traditional cable and anchor : see Dudley Jarrett "British Naval Dress" 1960, p. 65

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Signatures / Inscriptions: On the top locket is engraved "Gibbens Portsmouth"

General Note: It is unclear if this is a navy sword: if it was one would expect to see an anchor somewhere engraved, either on its langets or blade. It is probably not a dress sword: Philip J. Lankester, Senior Curator, Royal Armouries, London. It has not proved possible to accurately date the sword. The geometric blind embossed design on the scabbard was considered old fashioned by 1800 (see P.G.W. Annis, Naval Swords, Arms and Armour Press, 1970 p. 44), but the design of the stirrup hilt implies a ca. 1800, or later, date. William Gibbons was a Portsmouth sword cutler who was working at the end of the eighteenth century : see W.E. May & P.G.W. Annis, Swords for Sea Service, London, 1970 vol. 2 p. 326

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The Ages of Exploration

Matthew flinders.

Quick Facts:

He was a leading maritime explorer of Australia. He named the continent and produced the most accurate early atlas of the geography

Name : Matthew Flinders [flĭn-dərz]

Birth/Death : March 16, 1774 - July 19, 1814

Nationality : British

Birthplace : England

matthew flinders travel

First person to circumnavigate Australia Australian Museum

Introduction Matthew Flinders, the first person to circumnavigate (sail around) Australia, also gave the country its name.  There are monuments to him throughout several Australian cities, as well as to his cat, Trim – the first feline to circumnavigate the continent . 1

Biography Early Life The oldest of seven children, Matthew Flinders was born March 16, 1774 at Donington, Lincolnshire, England. He received a good education because it was thought he would become a surgeon like his father and grandfather. However, after reading the book Robinson Crusoe , Flinders developed a passion for seafaring. 2  H is first opportunity for adventure came in 1791 when he joined the crew of HMS Providence on a voyage to modern day Tahiti where they stayed for three months. While aboard the ship, he gained knowledge of navigation, tracking star patterns, using tools like the compass, and he took lessons from Bligh on chart construction. 3

It was his journey on the Reliance , however, that would give Flinders a chance to make history. In 1794, under the sail of Captain Henry Waterhouse, the Reliance embarked to Terra Australis Incognita,  Latin for “the unknown southern land” – the earliest name for what we now call Australia. At one time, this land was referred to as New Holland, first applied by Dutch seafarer Abel Tasman. 4 And while there were small territories under British control, much of the region was still unexplored. After arriving on the continent, expeditions were taken to survey coastal areas in search of harbors, rivers, and safe anchorages for ships. They also went into inland regions along rivers and across the mountains. They explored areas like the New South Wales coast, Port Jackson, and Botany Bay, and went inland on the George’s River on the small boat Tom Thumb . 5

Voyages Principal Voyage Flinders mapped much of the geography during these trips between October 1798 and January 1799. With his friend George Bass, they successfully became the first sailors to sail all the way around Van Diem’s Land (modern day Tasmania) in 1798 aboard the Norfolk . They proved that Van Diem’s Land was not part of the mainland, but was its own island. In March 1800, Flinders and the Reliance set sail to return to England. They arrived back in Plymouth on August 27, 1800. Flinders had been away from home for five and a half years, but his journey to Terra Australis Incognita was just beginning.

After only being home eleven days, Flinders gained information on a plan to further explore Terra Australis. He wrote a letter requesting support for a voyage to perform a circumnavigation of Australia. 6 He was chosen as commander, and began his journey in January 1801 aboard his ship, the Investigator . He reached Terra Australis in December and started surveying and charting the continent. During his journey, he explored several places including Spencer’s Gulf, Kangaroo Island, Timor, Java, and Port Jackson – present day Sydney. He arrived back in Sydney in 1803, becoming the first man to circle the entire Australian continent.

Subsequent Voyages Unfortunately, the Investigator’ s wood began to rot beyond repair, so Flinders decided to return back to England only two years into his expedition. His new ship Porpoise ran aground on a reef off the coast of Queensland. He got a new ship called the Cumberland . When his ship began to leak, he was forced to dock in Ile de France [Mauritius]. By this time, war had broken out between France and England, and Flinders, being thought a spy, was detained for 6 years. During his imprisonment, he worked on his papers and charts. He was released in 1810, and allowed to return to England.

Later Years and Death Matthew Flinders returned to England on October 23, 1810. He was received with honours and a promotion to post-captain. Sadly, his health had began to fail due to his time in captivity. He spent the next four years writing down his findings, and ultimately completed his great work A Voyage to Terra Australis . He died on July 19, 1814, the day after his book was published. In his popular book Flinders was the first to use the name ‘Australia’ consistently, and as a result the name was gradually adopted.

Legacy Leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia, Matthew Flinders mapped an entire continent and gave it its name. His passion for the sea lead him to a life dedicated to discovery. His journals, maps, atlas and countless drawings were essential documents that contributed to the development of Australia. He is honored throughout Australian states with statues praising his accomplishment of, literally, putting Australia on the map.

  • Tim Flannery, Introduction to Terra Australis: Text Classics, Matthew Flinders’ Great Adventures in the Circumnavigation of Australia , by Matthew Flinders (Melbourne: Text Publishing,  2000), vii.
  • Kenneth Morgan, Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016), 5.
  • Morgan, Matthew Flinders , 11.
  • Ab Hoving and Cor Emke, The Ships of Abel Tasman (The Netherlands: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2000), 23.
  • Morgan, Matthew Flinders , 23.
  • Morgan, Matthew Flinders , 46 – 47.

Bibliography

Flannery, Tim.  Introduction to Terra Australis: Text Classics, Matthew Flinders’ Great Adventures in the Circumnavigation of Australia , by Matthew Flinders, vii. Melbourne: Text Publishing,  2000.

Hoving, Ab  and Cor Emke. The Ships of Abel Tasman . The Netherlands: Uitgeverij Verloren, 2000.

Morgan, Kenneth   Matthew Flinders, Maritime Explorer of Australia . New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2016.

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Flinders circumnavigates Australia

1801–03: Matthew Flinders circumnavigates the continent that he names ‘Australia’

Bronze statue of Matthew Flinders' cat, Trim. Flinders described Trim as, 'The sporting, affectionate and useful companion of my voyages during four years', as he circumnavigated Australia. National Museum of Australia

Bronze statue of a cat.

British explorer Matthew Flinders was the first person to circumnavigate Australia. Flinders charted much previously unknown coastline, and the maps he produced were the first to accurately depict Australia as we now know it.

Flinders proved Australia was a single continent. By using the name ‘Australia’ in his maps and writings, he helped the word enter common usage.

Flinders in Voyage to Terra Australis , 1814:

Had I permitted myself any innovation upon the original term Terra Australis, it would have been to convert it into Australia; as being more agreeable to the ear, and as an assimilation to the names of the other great portions of the earth.

Flinders’ early career

Inspired by reading Robinson Crusoe , Matthew Flinders (1774–1814) joined the Navy as a midshipman in 1789 at the age of 15. He served on William Bligh’s second (and successful) voyage to Tahiti. It was here that Flinders honed the navigation skills that mark him as one of Britain’s most accomplished explorers.

In 1795 Flinders sailed to Sydney from where he made two short expeditions with the naval surgeon George Bass. The men, both in their early twenties, explored Botany Bay and the Georges River, and later Lake Illawarra. The boats they used for each of the expeditions were no more than three metres long.

Flinders also spent time on Norfolk Island and was sent to Cape Town to bring back livestock.

Van Diemen’s Land and Bass Strait

In 1798 Governor John Hunter gave Flinders, now a lieutenant, command of the sloop Norfolk and in this he and Bass circumnavigated Van Diemen’s Land, proving it to be an island. Flinders named the strait between the mainland and Van Diemen’s Land after his friend.

After exploring part of the Queensland coast, Flinders returned to England in 1800. The following year he published the findings of his expeditions, Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen’s Land, on Bass’s Strait and its Islands, and on Part of the Coasts of New South Wales.

Circumnavigation of Australia

Flinders’ book won him some acclaim and he was able to persuade Sir Joseph Banks to support his proposal to explore the entire Australian coast.

Banks, who had great influence with the British Admiralty, backed Flinders because he was concerned that the French had designs on Australia. Banks knew that the explorer Nicolas Baudin was embarking on an expedition to explore the continent for Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Admiralty approved and financed the Flinders expedition. Promoted to commander, Flinders was given command of HMS Investigator in February 1801 and ordered to start his expedition by charting ‘the Unknown Coast’, namely the eastern part of the Great Australian Bight.

One of the purposes of the expedition was to establish whether New Holland (western Australia) and New South Wales (eastern Australia) were parts of the same continent.

The Investigator ’s stream anchor, recovered after 170 years on the seabed in the Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia. National Museum of Australia

A ship's anchor. - click to view larger image

Investigator

The Investigator was a collier, like James Cook’s vessels. She was eight metres wide and 33 long.

Her flat bottom made her suitable for exploration work, as she could navigate shallow waters and would remain upright if she ran aground.

Flinders arranged improvements for the Investigator , ensuring that more of her hull was copper-coated and that she was provided with additional boats.

Three months before sailing for Australia, Flinders married Ann Chappell whom he had hoped to take with him.

However, permission was refused and Ann stayed in England. Though the voyage was expected to take four years, the couple were not to see one another for nine.

Flinders sailed from England on 18 July 1801 and less than six months later arrived at Point Leeuwin – Australia’s south-western tip.

He headed east and arrived in Fowler Bay in South Australia on 28 January 1802. He then explored Kangaroo Island, the Spencer Gulf and Gulf St Vincent.

In April 1802 Flinders came across Baudin in what he named Encounter Bay where the Murray River empties into the Great Australian Bight.

Baudin was dismayed to find that Flinders had already mapped the nearby coastline. However, the meeting was cordial and Flinders told Baudin about food and water available on Kangaroo Island.

Flinders then set sail for Sydney, which he reached on 9 May 1802. Soon after, he again met Baudin, who had been forced to find refuge in the English colony because his crew were so debilitated by scurvy.

Flinders overhauled the Investigator and let his crew recuperate before heading north on 22 July 1802.

Portrait of Matthew Flinders, RN, 1774–1814 , Toussaint Antoine De Chazal De Chamerel, 1806–07, Mauritius, oil on canvas 65 x 50 cm. Gift of David Roche in memory of his father, JDK Roche, and the South Australian Government 2000, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide

Portrait of Matthew Flinders. - click to view larger image

Encounters with Aboriginal men

Two Aboriginal men named Bungaree and Nanbaree accompanied him. Bungaree had the delicate task of negotiating with local tribes whenever Flinders wanted to go ashore.

Though Bungaree did not speak the languages of those he encountered, he did at least know many of the required cultural protocols and would have been of great value to the expedition.

Flinders carefully mapped the southern Queensland coast then passed through the Torres Strait into the Gulf of Carpentaria.

There it became clear that the half-rotten and badly leaking Investigator would not be able to make the return journey to England.

Reluctantly, Flinders decided to return to Sydney, continuing anti-clockwise around Australia. To do this quickly and safely meant he was unable to chart much of the western coast with the same rigour.

Maps for much of the west coast had been created by the Dutch in the 17th century.

Flinders arrived in the colony on 9 June 1803, nearly a year after leaving Port Jackson. Scurvy and dysentery had plagued the crew, and several had died of these and other causes.

But the journey had been a remarkable feat of navigation. It meant that Flinders, his crew and their two Aboriginal passengers were the first people to circumnavigate the entire continent.

Under arrest in Mauritius

In August 1803, keen to complete his surveying work of the Torres Strait in particular, Flinders set sail as a passenger on HMS Porpoise .

Unfortunately, the ship struck a reef off Queensland. Before the ship sank, everyone on board found refuge on a nearby island. Flinders navigated one of the ship’s boats 1127 kilometres back to Sydney where he arranged the rescue of the 94 other survivors.

The Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King, complied with Admiralty orders by helping Flinders in every possible way. However, in his haste to return to England, Flinders accepted command of the schooner Cumberland , a very small vessel that proved barely seaworthy.

This forced him to seek help at Mauritius, which was then ruled by the French. Flinders arrived there on 17 December 1803, unaware that seven months earlier England and France had once again gone to war.

The French governor, General Charles de Caen, had earlier fought against the British. He and Flinders clashed and the relationship worsened due to Flinders’ tactless handling of the governor at their first meeting.

Flinders had a French passport, but it had been issued for the Investigator . Baudin had earlier written to de Caen suggesting he extend hospitality towards the English and Flinders in particular because of their friendly meeting at Encounter Bay and the help rendered him at Sydney.

However, De Caen ignored these requests and put Flinders under arrest. He held Flinders on Mauritius for six years, disregarding orders from Paris to set him free.

This might have been motivated in part by personal animosity but de Caen was concerned that Flinders was a spy, or that he would at least reveal to the British how poorly defended Mauritius was.

But Flinders had the freedom of the island and he put the time to good use, forming close friendships and working on his journals and papers.

It was only when the British fleet blockaded the island that de Caen released Flinders, in June 1810.

Final years

In October 1810 Flinders finally returned home to England and his wife, with whom he subsequently had a daughter.

While Flinders languished on Mauritius, the account of Baudin’s voyage had been published by the expedition’s zoologist, François Péron. Baudin himself had died on Mauritius shortly before Flinders had arrived there. Baudin’s expedition was an impressive achievement and certainly more scientifically fruitful than that of Flinders.

However, Péron assigned French names to features first named by Flinders to whom he gave no credit of discovery at all.

Now promoted to post captain, Flinders spent four years setting the record straight in his magnum opus, A Voyage to Terra Australis . But his health was failing, having developed a bladder condition that was probably the result of gonorrhoea he contracted in Tahiti 20 years before.

Flinders died at the age of 40 on 18 July 1814 – the day after his book was published. A copy was placed in his hands but he was already unconscious. He died without seeing it.

General chart of Terra Australis or Australia by Matthew Flinders. This is the first map of Australia depicting it as a single continent. Flinders marked the coastline he charted himself with heavier lines. The map also shows his route. Tooley Collection, National Library of Australia T 1494

Hand-drawn map of Australia.

Mapping the continent

Flinders wrote to Sir Joseph Banks from Mauritius in 1804 enclosing his map of Australia. This map, and subsequent versions, were the first to present an accurate depiction of the continent.

Much of Australia’s coast had already been mapped, but Flinders came close to completing the picture. With great care and accuracy, he filled in enormous gaps, such as Bass Strait and the eastern part of the Great Australian Bight, and improved existing charts of Queensland and the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Most importantly he was able to show that Australia was a single continent.

He did this all in a ship that was barely seaworthy for much of the voyage, while enduring, along with his crew, a variety of privations and diseases over extended periods.

Naming the continent

Because the expedition proved that New South Wales in the east and New Holland in the west were the two halves of one landmass it was clear to Flinders that the continent needed a new name.

He labelled the map A chart of Terra Australis or Australia – Terra Australis meaning ‘southern land’, which was in common usage to describe the large southern landmass that was thought to ‘balance’ the great landmasses of the northern hemisphere.

The name ‘Australia’ had appeared in print before, again to describe the legendary southern landmass. The earliest printing of the name appears on a world map in a German astronomical treatise published in 1545.

The name appeared in English works 80 years later and was used occasionally after that, mostly in books. It is not clear whether Flinders knew of the word, or whether he coined it himself.

Banks did not support using ‘Australia’ and prevailed on Flinders to retain the Latin term, which he did in the title of his book. However, Flinders added the footnote quoted above, in which he indicates the term he preferred.

In 1817 Governor Macquarie received a copy of A Voyage to Terra Australis and used the term ‘Australia’ in his correspondence from then on. Britain formally named the continent Australia in 1824 and by the end of that decade it was in common usage.

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Encounter 1802–2002, State Library of South Australia

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Science in the colony in our Exploration and Endeavour exhibition

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Tim Flannery (ed), Terra Australis: Matthew Flinders’ Great Adventures in the Circumnavigation of Australia , Text Publishing, Melbourne, 2000.

Geoffrey C Ingleton, Matthew Flinders, Navigator and Chartmaker , Genesis Publications, Guildford, UK, 1986.

The National Museum of Australia acknowledges First Australians and recognises their continuous connection to Country, community and culture.

This website contains names, images and voices of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Who was Matthew Flinders, the man who put Australia on the map?

Matthew Flinders and his cat Trim were honoured with a statue at Port Lincoln.

After a marathon excavation effort, the body of Matthew Flinders has been discovered beneath Euston station in London.

Let's take a look at the life and achievements of the man who circumnavigated Australia.

Who was Flinders?

A black and white sketch of Matthew Flinders.

Flinders was born in England on March 16, 1774.

He joined the navy at 15 and served under William Bligh on a trip to Tahiti in 1791. He fought against the French in the naval battle of the Glorious First of June 1794, according to the Australian Museum .

Flinders sailed to Australia in 1795 to begin his survey work.

Shortly after his most famous voyage, Flinders was captured by the French on his return to England and held prisoner for more than six years.

Just four years later he died of kidney failure at the age of 40 — the day after the book detailing his circumnavigation of Australia was published.

What were his accomplishments?

The Australian Museum says Flinders was "an outstanding sailor, surveyor, navigator and scientist".

After it became known French explorer Nicholas Baudin was planning to circumnavigate Australia , Flinders was sent out with his good friend George Bass to do it quicker than his French counterpart.

Historian Dave Hunt described the circumnavigation as a race.

"[Joseph] Banks says to Flinders, 'I need somebody to go out and sail around the continent quicker than him', so Flinders and [his cat] Trim are actually racing Baudin and his pet monkey around Australia [between] 1801 and 1803," Mr Hunt explained to the ABC in the Rum Rebels and Ratbags podcast.

In 1801 Flinders began his circumnavigation of the continent, and was later accompanied by an Aboriginal translator, Bungaree, who he had worked alongside in 1789.

By 1803, Flinders had won, becoming the first person to circumnavigate Australia and identify it as a continent .

Mr Hunt says Flinders was also the first to seriously propose and popularise the name "Australia" for the continent he sailed around.

Before his most famous voyage, Flinders also circumnavigated Tasmania , proving it was separate from mainland Australia.

What's the deal with his cat again?

A statue of a cat

Flinders's cat Trim was born in 1799 on board the HMS Reliance while Flinders sailed from the Cape of Good Hope to Botany Bay.

The legend goes that Flinders became enamoured with his feline friend when Trim fell overboard as a kitten and managed to swim back to the boat and climb a rope to safety.

Flinders choose the name Trim after the butler in Laurence Sterne's book Tristram Shandy.

Here's how Flinders described Trim:

"One of the finest animals I ever saw … [his] robe was a clear jet black, with the exception of his four feet, which seemed to have been dipped in snow, and his under lip, which rivalled them in whiteness. He had also a white star on his breast."

Trim was so central to Flinders's life that he appears alongside him in many of the statues of Flinders around Australia.

What's the story been with the hunt for his body?

Flinders was buried in a cemetery that later became London's Euston railway station.

Euston is one of London's main stations and it is in the middle of a major upgrade to accommodate the UK's $101 billion HS2 high-speed rail project.

That means Flinders's remains, and those of 45,000 others, have to be moved .

It's Britain's biggest-ever excavation project.

An archaeological site being dug by people up near London's Euston railway station.

But until now, the archaeologists (more than 1,000 of them) that are working around the clock to exhume the skeletons didn't know exactly where Flinders was.

"We have a list of all the famous people who were buried here, Matthew Flinders is obviously one of the most exciting ones, but unfortunately we don't have an exact plan of the burial ground," Helen Wass, the project's head of heritage, told the ABC last year.

Some of those famous people include famous American boxer Bill Richmond, known as the world's first black sports star, and members of the Christie family who founded the famous auction house.

Work won't stop now that Flinders have been found though. It's expected the excavation work will continue for at least another year.

What happens to his body now?

Flinders's remains will undergo testing for more clues about his life.

Then he'll be interred with the other bodies that have been exhumed at an undecided site in the future.

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Matthew Flinders

Our namesake is British navigator and cartographer, Matthew Flinders.

Leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia, Captain Matthew Flinders RN (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) made three voyages to the southern ocean between 1791 and 1810.

As commander of the Investigator, Flinders circumnavigated the mainland and created the first complete map of the continent on his third voyage in 1801.

Although he returned home in 1810, Flinders did not live to see the publication of his monumental work, A Voyage to Terra Australis , dying one day after its publication on 19 July 1814. That work – including a journal, maps, atlas and countless drawings – is an essential historical document that contributed to the naming of our country.

Matthew Flinders’ work and influence lives on, and his name is associated with more than 100 geographical features and places in Australia. Having extensively explored and surveyed the South Australian coastline in 1802, he is of particular importance to South Australia.

Flinders is remembered for his sense of adventure, his innovations in navigation and cartography, his groundbreaking scientific work, his embrace of technology, and his consideration for his crew’s health and wellbeing – all qualities that make him a suitable inspiration to Flinders University.

Flinders University continues to evoke the intrepid spirit of Matthew Flinders, inspiring its students to achieve their highest potential, encouraging intellectual and cultural curiosity, and fostering a global perspective.

I have too much ambition to rest in the unnoticed middle order of mankind.

MATTHEW FLINDERS

Matthew Flinders statue

Flinders University continues to evoke the pioneering spirit of its namesake, Captain Matthew Flinders RN. For almost 50 years, Flinders University has inspired our students to achieve their highest potential, encouraged intellectual and cultural curiosity, and fostered a global perspective. Today, our graduates identify with – and can be distinguished by – these distinctive academic, professional and cultural characteristics.

To commemorate the explorer’s achievements, a bronze statue – by Britain’s most noted sculptor Mark Richards FRBS – was unveiled at Euston Station in London in 2014.

Proceeds from the sale of limited edition bronze maquettes of the statue will contribute to the ‘Matthew Flinders Statue Scholarship’ established to further develop educational links between South Australia and the UK.

One maquette has created quite a stir in the media with regards to the company it’s keeping – read the full article: Matthew Flinders statue features in London photocall with Michelle Obama and Prince Harry.

In 2016, the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Malcomn Turnbull, unveiled a full-sized replica of the statue here at Flinders University's Tonsley precinct.

Royal unveiling of Flinders statue

Matthew Flinders statue unveiling at Tonsley

Sturt Rd, Bedford Park South Australia 5042

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Matthew Flinders

  • Updated 11/06/21
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Readers note: This is an excerpt from the Trailblazers: Australia’s 50 Greatest Explorers exhibition, developed in 2015. This content was written as a brief biography on why this person was included in the exhibition.

Matthew Flinders was one of our greatest seafaring explorers, charting much of Australia’s coastline despite a series of trials and wild adventures. An outstanding sailor, surveyor, navigator and scientist, he was a considerate and self-sacrificing leader who looked after all under his command.

Born in England on 16 March 1774, Flinders developed a longing for adventures at sea, partly through reading Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe . He entered the navy at 15 years of age, served under William Bligh on a voyage to Tahiti in 1791 and fought against the French in the naval battle of the Glorious First of June 1794.

In 1795 Flinders sailed to Australia, where he carried out vital coastal survey work. In 1798 he and George Bass circumnavigated Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen’s Land), proving it was separate from mainland Australia.

Matthew Flinders Portrait

Portrait of Captain Matthew Flinders, RN,1774-1814 Creator: Toussaint Antoine DE CHAZAL DE CHAMEREL Date created: 1806-07 Location: Mauritius Physical Dimensions: w50 x h64.5 cm Type: Painting Rights: Gift of David Roche in memory of his father, J.D.K. Roche, and the South Australian Government 2000, Medium: oil on canva

Trailblazers exhibition Tim Cope

Flinders returned to England briefly, where he was promoted to commander of the 334-tonne HMS Investigator , with instructions to explore the southern coastline of Australia. He reached Cape Leeuwin, southern Western Australia, late in 1801 and set about mapping Australia’s ‘Unknown Coast’. His precise, detailed maps are the result of his methodical practice of personally taking all bearings and returning each day to where the previous day’s work had ended.

The Investigator was resupplied and refitted in Sydney in May 1802, before Flinders began his circumnavigation of the continent, accompanied by an Aboriginal translator, Bungaree. But the vessel was leaking badly as it reached the Gulf of Carpentaria. Flinders abandoned the charting work, but continued the circumnavigation to Sydney, limping back into port in June 1803.

Flinders hoped to return to England on the HMS Porpoise to procure another vessel to finish his surveying work, but the Porpoise struck a reef and sank. Flinders expertly sailed her cutter 1130 kilometres back to Sydney, arranged for the rescue of his wrecked shipmates, then sailed for England in another leaky boat, the Cumberland . He pulled into Mauritius for repairs, where the French governor arrested him as a spy and detained him for six years.

Many memorials to Matthew Flinders are found throughout South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, and coastal features include Flinders Bay (SA) and the Flinders Group of islands in far north Queensland. A small iron rod placed near a ship’s compass is named Flinders bar, as he found it counteracted the vertical magnetism of a vessel.

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The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands.

Image credit: gadigal yilimung (shield) made by Uncle Charles  Chicka  Madden

matthew flinders travel

Matthew Flinders

How did Australia get its name and what did a seafaring cat have to do with this voyage of discovery?

Explorer Matthew Flinders was the first man to circumnavigate Australia and popularised the name ‘Australia’ in his book,  Voyage to Terra Australis.

Lincolnshire-born explorer Matthew Flinders is revered in Australia but almost unknown in his homeland. He was the first man to circumnavigate the continent and the first person to use the name ‘Australia’ in his book, Voyage to Terra Australis , published in 1814. He was also one of the best cartographers and navigators of his age.

Early career

Born in Lincolnshire in 1774, Flinders joined the British Royal Navy in 1789, aged 15. He sailed as midshipman on William Bligh’s second breadfruit voyage to Tahiti in 1792 and gained a passion for cartography. 

In 1795 Flinders was posted to Port Jackson (now known as Sydney Harbour) on HM ship  Reliance where he became a friend of George Bass, the ship's surgeon. The pair undertook a series of detailed surveys in Tom Thumb , an 8-foot dinghy. Their major coup was the discovery that Van Diemen's Land (present-day Tasmania) was an island and not part of the mainland.

Circumnavigating Australia

When he returned to Britain five years later, Flinders published his charts and wrote to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society, to argue that a voyage was needed to chart the remaining coasts of Australia. Britain, in the throes of war with France, had no resources for such an expedition, but Banks was a great champion of imperial expansion and agreed.

The Flinders expedition was one of the first organised to try to open up lands for colonial expansion. On board were botanists and scientists, there to learn about natural resources and, through study of native plants and animals, discover whether the land was sufficiently fertile to sustain farming and immigration.

Flinders sailed on the  Investigator , a ship in a poor state of repair, which leaked constantly; however, against all odds, it did manage successfully to circumnavigate the Australian coastline.

The expedition brought back 4000 dried plant specimens including 150 genera and 1500 species new to science. This was a great achievement, given that Captain Cook's second voyage, considered a triumph in botanical terms, brought back just 350 new species. 

Imprisoned on Ile de France

Upon his return to England, on board the Cumberland , Flinders was forced to stop at Ile de France (present-day Mauritius) for urgent repairs. At the time, Britain and at France were at war and, despite the scientific nature of his expedition, he was detained as a spy for the next six years.

While interned, Flinders wrote up the detailed notes of his voyage for future publication in his book, Voyage to Terra Australis. He eventually returned home in 1810 but died four years later on 19 July 1814, aged 40. This was the day after his book was published.

Despite Flinders's failings, his achievements were remarkable, although in Britain he never had the stature of Cook. However, he was a distinguished member of that elite band of seamen who began to add precise detail to the outlines of the world’s oceans and helped to lay the foundations of the Royal Navy's official hydrographic service.

Matthew Flinders’s cat

A famous part of Matthew Flinders’s legacy is his association with Trim the cat. Trim was a ship’s cat, born on board the  Reliance  in 1799. The cat sailed with Flinders on the  Investigator  on his voyage circumnavigating Australia, but disappeared when Flinders was imprisoned on Ile de France. Trim’s legacy lives on in the statues of Matthew Flinders, which often feature his cat at his feet.

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an illustration of Captain Matthew Flinders

Captain Matthew Flinders led the first circumnavigation of Australia and named the continent.

Archaeologists discover grave of explorer who put Australia on the map

Navigator’s remains found among tens of thousands of graves being moved to make way for Britain's HS2 high speed rail line.

Archaeologists working at a construction site near London’s Euston Station have uncovered the long-lost remains of Captain Matthew Flinders, solving an enduring mystery surrounding the final resting place of one of Australia’s most revered explorers.

Flinders, a British naval officer who in 1803 led the first expedition to circumnavigate Australia, and who is widely credited with giving the continent its name, died in 1814 and was buried in a London cemetery. The graveyard subsequently fell into neglect and was later redeveloped into a city park named St. James Gardens. The headstones were unceremoniously cleared away and the locations and identities of the graves, some 60,000 of them, were lost and forgotten.

A portion of the old burial ground became the site of the Euston railway station, and a popular urban myth sprang up that Flinders was buried under Platform 15.

the archaeological excavation uncovering Captain Flinders' remains

Locating Flinders' remains among thousands of unmarked graves was a long shot. His coffin was one of the few bearing a lead plaque inscribed with the occupant's name.

That’s how things might have remained but for the mammoth HS2 high speed rail link being built to connect London with Birmingham. As part of that megaproject, St. James Gardens is being built over and the thousands of graves are being exhumed for reburial elsewhere.

"Finding and identifying Matthew Flinders' remains was like finding a needle in a haystack," says Helen Wass, the lead archaeologist for the HS2 project. "There are literally tens of thousands of graves here. We didn't have any idea where in the old churchyard he was meant to have been buried. It's an amazing stroke of luck."

the archaeological excavation uncovering Captain Flinders' remains

Archaeolgists carefully lift the lead plaque from Flinders' grave. The explorer's remains will be reinterred at another location.

With no headstones and no burial map of the old churchyard, the only way of identifying remains is if the coffin has a breastplate identifying the occupant. Only a small percentage of coffins unearthed so far have them, and those made of tin tended not to survive in the damp London soil, at least not well enough to be read. "If he hadn't have had a breastplate on his coffin or had one made of tin, we'd have dug him up and never known who it was," says Wass.

Fortunately, Captain Flinders' coffin had a breastplate made of highly durable lead. Its inscription and floral embellishments are still clearly legible after more than two hundred years in the ground.

Famous and forgotten

Flinders has long been a prominent name in Australian history. Although he never named a single feature for himself, an admiring posterity put his name on towns, streets, national parks, electoral districts, a mountain range, an island, and a university. "My Australian colleagues were stunned to learn that we were hoping to find the unmarked grave of Matthew Flinders," says Wass. "They more or less assumed he'd be buried somewhere like Westminster Abbey."

The discovery of Flinders remains has revived interest in a man who was once rated alongside Cook and Bligh as one of the preeminent navigators of the age, but has since been largely forgotten in his homeland.

Born in Lincolnshire in 1774, the son of a country doctor, Matthew Flinders was inspired as a boy by reading The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe . He joined the Royal Navy at 15 seeking the same sort of swashbuckling adventure and found it in spades. He sailed to Tahiti and around the world with Captain Bligh, explored the unknown coasts of Tasmania and New South Wales in small boats, saw action in the Napoleonic War, led the first expedition to circumnavigate Australia in 1803, and on his way back to England was arrested as a spy by the French and spent six years in captivity in Mauritius.

By the time he returned to England in 1810 his health was broken. He barely finished his magnum opus, A Voyage to Terra Australis, in which he christened the continent "Australia". He died on July 19, 1814, one day after his book was published.

"Had he died in battle or on some far-flung shore, Flinders would be much better remembered today," says James Delgado , a marine archaeologist and historian. “Flinders and his peers, Cook and Bligh, opened the world by charting the seas. They’re part of a progression of surveyors and navigators who made possible the world we live in today."

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Roni The Travel Guru

Moscow Metro – Part 2

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Have you been to Moscow ? In all seriousness, they have the prettiest metro stations I have ever seen and I still can’t believe how immaculate and lovely every station was. There are several different stations pictured below and this is the second of several posts where I will show you the beauty of the Moscow Metro. Did you see part 1 ?  There really isn’t much to say because I think the pictures speak for themselves. I have so many more pictures to share with you!

moscow metro

Have you ever been to Moscow? Is it someplace you have thought about visiting?

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She speaks fluent English, French and Spanish, and works for a major airline. And guess what? She’s also a licensed elementary teacher and has an MBA.

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This is the train STATION?? Oh my god… So gorgeous. Moscow has never even crossed my mind as a possible travel destination but this is gorgeous…Hmmm… LOL

I know, right? We spent several hours in the metro, just marveling at the beauty of each one. Thanks for stopping by!

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The trains and stations of the Moscow Metro

2 Comments · Posted by Alex Smirnov in Cities , Travel , Video

The Moscow Metro is the third most intensive subway system in the world after Tokyo and Seoul subways. The first line was opened on May 15, 1935. Since 1955, the metro has the name of V.I. Lenin.

The system consists of 12 lines with a total length of 305.7 km. Forty four stations are recognized cultural heritage. The largest passenger traffic is in rush hours from 8:00 to 9:00 and from 18:00 to 19:00.

Cellular communication is available on most of the stations of the Moscow Metro. In March 2012, a free Wi-Fi appeared in the Circle Line train. The Moscow Metro is open to passengers from 5:20 to 01:00. The average interval between trains is 2.5 minutes.

The fare is paid by using contactless tickets and contactless smart cards, the passes to the stations are controlled by automatic turnstiles. Ticket offices and ticket vending machines can be found in station vestibules.

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Tomás · August 27, 2012 at 11:34 pm

The Moscow metro stations are the best That I know, cars do not.

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Alberto Calvo · September 25, 2016 at 8:57 pm

Great videos! Moscow Metro is just spectacular. I actually visited Moscow myself quite recently and wrote a post about my top 7 stations, please check it out and let me know what you think! :)

http://www.arwtravels.com/blog/moscow-metro-top-7-stations-you-cant-miss

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Claudia Looi

Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

By Claudia Looi 2 Comments

Komsomolskaya metro station

Komsomolskaya metro station looks like a museum. It has vaulted ceilings and baroque decor.

Hidden underground, in the heart of Moscow, are historical and architectural treasures of Russia. These are Soviet-era creations – the metro stations of Moscow.

Our guide Maria introduced these elaborate metro stations as “the palaces for the people.” Built between 1937 and 1955, each station holds its own history and stories. Stalin had the idea of building beautiful underground spaces that the masses could enjoy. They would look like museums, art centers, concert halls, palaces and churches. Each would have a different theme. None would be alike.

The two-hour private tour was with a former Intourist tour guide named Maria. Maria lived in Moscow all her life and through the communist era of 60s to 90s. She has been a tour guide for more than 30 years. Being in her 60s, she moved rather quickly for her age. We traveled and crammed with Maria and other Muscovites on the metro to visit 10 different metro stations.

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Arrow showing the direction of metro line 1 and 2

Moscow subways are very clean

Moscow subways are very clean

To Maria, every street, metro and building told a story. I couldn’t keep up with her stories. I don’t remember most of what she said because I was just thrilled being in Moscow.   Added to that, she spilled out so many Russian words and names, which to one who can’t read Cyrillic, sounded so foreign and could be easily forgotten.

The metro tour was the first part of our all day tour of Moscow with Maria. Here are the stations we visited:

1. Komsomolskaya Metro Station  is the most beautiful of them all. Painted yellow and decorated with chandeliers, gold leaves and semi precious stones, the station looks like a stately museum. And possibly decorated like a palace. I saw Komsomolskaya first, before the rest of the stations upon arrival in Moscow by train from St. Petersburg.

2. Revolution Square Metro Station (Ploshchad Revolyutsii) has marble arches and 72 bronze sculptures designed by Alexey Dushkin. The marble arches are flanked by the bronze sculptures. If you look closely you will see passersby touching the bronze dog's nose. Legend has it that good luck comes to those who touch the dog's nose.

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Touch the dog's nose for good luck. At the Revolution Square station

Revolution Square Metro Station

Revolution Square Metro Station

3. Arbatskaya Metro Station served as a shelter during the Soviet-era. It is one of the largest and the deepest metro stations in Moscow.

Arbatskaya Metro Station

Arbatskaya Metro Station

4. Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station was built in 1935 and named after the Russian State Library. It is located near the library and has a big mosaic portrait of Lenin and yellow ceramic tiles on the track walls.

Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

Lenin's portrait at the Biblioteka Imeni Lenina Metro Station

IMG_5767

5. Kievskaya Metro Station was one of the first to be completed in Moscow. Named after the capital city of Ukraine by Kiev-born, Nikita Khruschev, Stalin's successor.

IMG_5859

Kievskaya Metro Station

6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station  was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders.

Screen Shot 2015-04-01 at 5.17.53 PM

Novoslobodskaya metro station

7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power. It has a dome with patriotic slogans decorated with red stars representing the Soviet's World War II Hall of Fame. Kurskaya Metro Station is a must-visit station in Moscow.

matthew flinders travel

Ceiling panel and artworks at Kurskaya Metro Station

IMG_5826

8. Mayakovskaya Metro Station built in 1938. It was named after Russian poet Vladmir Mayakovsky. This is one of the most beautiful metro stations in the world with 34 mosaics painted by Alexander Deyneka.

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya station

Mayakovskaya metro station

One of the over 30 ceiling mosaics in Mayakovskaya metro station

9. Belorusskaya Metro Station is named after the people of Belarus. In the picture below, there are statues of 3 members of the Partisan Resistance in Belarus during World War II. The statues were sculpted by Sergei Orlov, S. Rabinovich and I. Slonim.

IMG_5893

10. Teatralnaya Metro Station (Theatre Metro Station) is located near the Bolshoi Theatre.

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Teatralnaya Metro Station decorated with porcelain figures .

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Taking the metro's escalator at the end of the tour with Maria the tour guide.

Have you visited the Moscow Metro? Leave your comment below.

' src=

January 15, 2017 at 8:17 am

An excellent read! Thanks for much for sharing the Russian metro system with us. We're heading to Moscow in April and exploring the metro stations were on our list and after reading your post, I'm even more excited to go visit them. Thanks again 🙂

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December 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm

Hi, do you remember which tour company you contacted for this tour?

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Strange Glow Over Moscow Skies Triggers Panic as Explosions Reported

B right flashes lit up the night sky in southern Moscow in the early hours of Thursday morning, new footage appears to show, following reports of an explosion at an electrical substation on the outskirts of the city.

Video snippets circulating on Russian-language Telegram channels show a series of flashes on the horizon of a cloudy night sky, momentarily turning the sky a number of different colors. In a clip shared by Russian outlet MSK1.ru, smoke can be seen rising from a building during the flashes lighting up the scene.

Newsweek was unable to independently verify the details of the video clips, including when and where it was filmed. The Russian Ministry of Emergency situations has been contacted via email.

Several Russian Telegram accounts said early on Thursday that residents of southern Moscow reported an explosion and a fire breaking out at an electrical substation in the Leninsky district, southeast of central Moscow.

Local authorities in the Leninsky district told Russian outlet RBC that the explosion had happened in the village of Molokovo. "All vital facilities are operating as normal," Leninsky district officials told the outlet.

The incident at the substation in Molokovo took place just before 2 a.m. local time, MSK1.ru reported.

Messages published by the ASTRA Telegram account, run by independent Russian journalists, appear to show residents close to the substation panicking as they question the bright flashes in the sky. One local resident describes seeing the bright light before losing access to electricity, with another calling the incident a "nightmare."

More than 10 villages and towns in the southeast of Moscow lost access to electricity, the ASTRA Telegram account also reported. The town of Lytkarino to the southeast of Moscow, lost electricity, wrote the eastern European-based independent outlet, Meduza.

Outages were reported in the southern Domodedovo area of the city, according to another Russian outlet, as well as power failures in western Moscow. Electricity was then restored to the areas, the Strana.ua outlet reported.

The cause of the reported explosion is not known. A Telegram account aggregating news for the Lytkarino area described the incident as "an ordinary accident at a substation."

The MSK1.ru outlet quoted a local resident who speculated that a drone may have been responsible for the explosion, but no other Russian source reported this as a possible cause.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Moscow with long-range aerial drones in recent months, including a dramatic wave of strikes in late May.

On Sunday, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the region's air defense systems had intercepted an aerial drone over the city of Elektrostal, to the east of Moscow. No damage or casualties were reported, he said.

The previous day, Russian air defenses detected and shot down another drone flying over the Bogorodsky district, northeast of central Moscow, Sobyanin said.

There is currently no evidence that an aerial drone was responsible for the reported overnight explosion at the electrical substation in southern Moscow.

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Stills from footage circulating on Telegram early on Thursday morning. Bright flashes lit up the night sky in southern Moscow, new footage appears to show, following reports of an explosion at an electrical substation on the outskirts of the city.

IMAGES

  1. Map of the Voyages of Matthew Flinders in the Investigator

    matthew flinders travel

  2. Matthew Flinders: Who was the explorer whose remains were found at HS2 dig?

    matthew flinders travel

  3. Matthew Flinders' remains discovered under London train station

    matthew flinders travel

  4. Matthew Flinders: strange life of Australia’s greatest explorer

    matthew flinders travel

  5. Matthew Flinders

    matthew flinders travel

  6. Matthew Flinders in South Australia

    matthew flinders travel

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  1. Matthew Flinders

    Matthew Flinders (born March 16, 1774, Donington, Lincolnshire, England—died July 19, 1814, London) was an English navigator who charted much of the Australian coast. Flinders entered the Royal Navy in 1789 and became a navigator. In 1795 he sailed to Australia, where he explored and charted its southeast coast and circumnavigated the island ...

  2. Matthew Flinders

    Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 - 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland.He is also credited as being the first person to utilise the name Australia to describe the entirety of that continent including Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania), a title he regarded as being "more agreeable ...

  3. Matthew Flinders

    Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) was an English navigator and hydrographer. He was the first person to map the coastal outline of Australia in 1801-1803, following his circumnavigation of the 7.692 million square kilometres (2.96 million square miles) continent. To Dutch navigators, the landmass was known as New Holland (specifically, the western ...

  4. Voyages of Matthew Flinders

    Captain Matthew Flinders was an English navigator, cartographer and officer of the Royal Navy who led the second circumnavigation of New Holland, that he would subsequently call "Australia", and identified it as a continent. Flinders made three voyages to the southern ocean between 1791 and 1810. In the second voyage, George Bass and Flinders ...

  5. Matthew Flinders' journeys

    The overthrow and aftermath. Matthew Flinders, (1774-1814), was the first man to circumnavigate Australia. His charts were so accurate that some are still in use to this day. After sailing with the famous Captain Bligh on the Providence, Flinders' adventures brought him to Australia onboard the Reliance.

  6. Matthew Flinders

    Quick Facts: He was a leading maritime explorer of Australia. He named the continent and produced the most accurate early atlas of the geography. Name: Matthew Flinders [flĭn-dərz] Birth/Death: March 16, 1774 - July 19, 1814. Nationality: British. Birthplace: England.

  7. Flinders circumnavigates Australia

    1801-03: Matthew Flinders circumnavigates the continent that he names 'Australia'. See our classroom resource. Bronze statue of Matthew Flinders' cat, Trim. British explorer Matthew Flinders was the first person to circumnavigate Australia. Flinders charted much previously unknown coastline, and the maps he produced were the first to ...

  8. Who was Matthew Flinders, the man who put Australia on the map?

    Flinders was born in England on March 16, 1774. He joined the navy at 15 and served under William Bligh on a trip to Tahiti in 1791. He fought against the French in the naval battle of the ...

  9. Matthew Flinders

    Matthew Flinders. Our namesake is British navigator and cartographer, Matthew Flinders. Leader of the first circumnavigation of Australia, Captain Matthew Flinders RN (16 March 1774 - 19 July 1814) made three voyages to the southern ocean between 1791 and 1810. As commander of the Investigator, Flinders circumnavigated the mainland and ...

  10. Matthew Flinders

    Portrait of Captain Matthew Flinders, RN,1774-1814 Creator: Toussaint Antoine DE CHAZAL DE CHAMEREL Date created: 1806-07 Location: Mauritius Physical Dimensions: w50 x h64.5 cm Type: Painting Rights: Gift of David Roche in memory of his father, J.D.K. Roche, and the South Australian Government 2000, Medium: oil on canva.

  11. Matthew Flinders

    Early career. Born in Lincolnshire in 1774, Flinders joined the British Royal Navy in 1789, aged 15. He sailed as midshipman on William Bligh's second breadfruit voyage to Tahiti in 1792 and gained a passion for cartography. In 1795 Flinders was posted to Port Jackson (now known as Sydney Harbour) on HM ship Reliance where he became a friend ...

  12. After 250 years, Matthew Flinders goes on his epic final journey

    Flinders' father Matthew Snr, the village surgeon, was buried in the church grounds as were his brother, Samuel, his grandfather John and various aunties. St Mary and the Holy Rood, the church ...

  13. Map of the Voyages of Matthew Flinders in the Investigator

    Map showing the circumnavigation of New Holland (Australia) in 1802-1803 by the British navigator and cartographer Matthew Flinders(1774-1814).

  14. matthewflinders.net

    The Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home Group was established early in 2019 with the aim of influencing the return of Matthew Flinders' mortal remains to Donington for their final reinterrment. The Group is made up of local people from the Parochial Church Council; the Parish Council and others. The Group is also supportive of the Flinders display ...

  15. discovery

    discovery. When Matthew died in 1814, he was still living in London working with the Publishers of his great works A Voyage to Terra Australis. So his remains were buried in London. The location of Flinders' grave in St. James's Garden, a former burial ground, was unknown by the mid-19th century. From 1789 to 1853, the site was used as an ...

  16. Archaeologists discover grave of Australia explorer Matthew Flinders

    January 25, 2019. • 5 min read. Archaeologists working at a construction site near London's Euston Station have uncovered the long-lost remains of Captain Matthew Flinders, solving an enduring ...

  17. Australia explorer Matthew Flinders to be reburied in British village

    The remains of Matthew Flinders, the first British explorer to circumnavigate Australia, will be reburied in his home village after being discovered under a London train station, a rail ...

  18. Moscow Metro

    Ihere is something special about seeing art and beauty while hundreds of feet underground. The metro in Moscow is breathtakingly beautiful, don't you think?

  19. The trains and stations of the Moscow Metro · Russia Travel Blog

    2 Comments · Posted by Alex Smirnov in Cities, Travel, Video. The Moscow Metro is the third most intensive subway system in the world after Tokyo and Seoul subways. The first line was opened on May 15, 1935. Since 1955, the metro has the name of V.I. Lenin.

  20. Touring the Top 10 Moscow Metro Stations

    6. Novoslobodskaya Metro Station was built in 1952. It has 32 stained glass murals with brass borders. Novoslobodskaya metro station. 7. Kurskaya Metro Station was one of the first few to be built in Moscow in 1938. It has ceiling panels and artwork showing Soviet leadership, Soviet lifestyle and political power.

  21. Strange Glow Over Moscow Skies Triggers Panic as Explosions Reported

    B right flashes lit up the night sky in southern Moscow in the early hours of Thursday morning, new footage appears to show, following reports of an explosion at an electrical substation on the ...