Flinders, Matthew (1774 - 1814)

Summary

Matthew Flinders was a naval officer and maritime surveyor who led the first inshore circumnavigation of New Holland and is credited with being the first person to use the name Australia. Between 1789 and 1794 he served on several British war ships, including in H.M.S. Bounty under William Bligh. Travelling to Port Jackson in New South Wales in 1795, Flinders spent the next few years, in company with George Bass, making exploratory journeys along the east coast of New South Wales. In 1796, they circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land: in the process it was confirmed that the island was separated from New Holland by a stretch of sea which Flinders named Bass Strait. Promoted to Commander, Flinders was given command of H.M.S. Investigator in 1801 with orders to survey the coastal waters of New Holland. Scientific personnel on board included botanist Robert Brown, artist Ferdinand Bauer, and collector Peter Good. The expedition reached the southwest of the continent in December 1801, and proceeded east along the south coast through Bass Strait to Port Jackson. On the way they had an unexpected encounter with the French corvette Géographe under the command of Nicolas Baudin in what was then named Encounter Bay. In July 1802 Investigator embarked for the intended circumnavigation. By the time they reached Torres Strait, Flinders's concern about the condition of the ship caused him to curtail the expedition and head to Port Jackson via Timor and the west and south coasts with all speed. His return journey to the United Kingdom for a replacement ship ended with imprisonment on the Ile de France. Thanks to the obduracy of the Governor, Flinders remained there for over six years, finally reaching London five years after the refurbished Investigator. By now in poor health, Flinders completed his account of the 1801 - 1803 voyage, published in July 1814. Flinders Island in Bass Strait was named in his honour. The Matthew Flinders Medal has been awarded by the Australian Academy of Science since 1957.

Details

Chronology

1789

Career event - Joined the Royal Navy

July 1790

Career position - Midshipman, H.M.S. Bellephron

July 1791 - August 1793

Career position - Midshipman, H.M.S. Providence, under command of William Bligh

September 1793 - 1794

Career position - Midshipman, H.M.S. Bellephron

1795

Career position - Midshipman, H.M.S. Reliance, travelling to New South Wales

1795

Career event - Exploring Botany Bay and Georges River with George Bass in Tom Thumb

1796

Career event - Exploring New South Wales coast south of Port Jackson with George Bass in Tom Thumb II

1798

Career position - Lieutenant in command of Norfolk accompanied by George Bass: circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land

1799

Career event - Exploring New South Wales coast north to Hervey Bay in Norfolk

1800

Life event - Returned to the United Kingdom

January 1801

Career event - Appointed to command of Investigator

February 1801

Career event - Promoted to Commander

July 1801

Career event - Embarked for New Holland

6 December 1801

Career event - Reached and named Cape Leeuwin, in southwest of New Holland

April 1802

Career event - Encountered French corvette Géographe under command of Nicolas Baudin in Encounter Bay

9 May 1802

Career event - Arrived at Port Jackson, New South Wales

22 July 1802

Career event - Embarked for circumnavigation of New Holland

9 June 1803

Career event - Returned to Port Jackson

December 1803 - June 1810

Life event - Imprisoned on Ile de France

October 1810

Life event - Arrived in England

July 1814

Life event - A voyage to terra australis (…) published

Related entries

Archival resources

Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science

• Australian Botanists - Biographies, MS 064; Adolph Basser Library, Australian Academy of Science. Details

Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales

• Angus & Robertson - Records, 1824 - 1933, ML MSS 314; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Louis Henri desaulses de Freycinet - Records, 1803 - 1809, FM 4/1740; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1805, ML DOC 1579; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1789 - 1814, ML DOC 1137; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1792 - 1793, A4055; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1801 - 1813, B1402; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1803 - 1804, ML MSS 2592; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, C247-9; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1814, ML DOC 905; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1803 - 1810, ML DOC 2644; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1801 - 1814, ML DOC 2727; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1802, ML MSS 204X; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1809, ML DOC 2943; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1908, ML DOC 3328; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, ML MSS 732; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details
• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1795 - 1999, FM 3/688; Mitchell and Dixson Libraries Manuscripts Collection, State Library of New South Wales. Details

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

• John Franklin - Records, 1837 - 1859, MS 114; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana

• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1774 - 1960, PRG 17; State Library of South Australia, Mortlock Library of South Australiana. Details

State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection

• Matthew Flinders - Records, 1791 - 1803; State Library of Victoria, Australian Manuscripts Collection. Details

Published resources

Books

• Austin, K. A., The voyage of the Investigator 1801 - 1803, Commander Matthew Flinders, R.N. (Adelaide: Rigby Limited, 1964), 223 pp. Details
• Bastian, Josephine, A passion for exploring new countries: Matthew Flinders and George Bass (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publications, 2016), 303 pp. Details
• Brunton, Paul, Matthew Flinders: the Ultimate Voyage (Sydney: State Library of New South Wales, 2001), 34 pp. Details
• Dooley, Gillian, Matthew Flinders: the man behind the map (Mile End, S.A.: Wakefield Press, 2002), 254 pp. Details
• Estensen, Miriam, The Life of Matthew Flinders (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2002), 560 pp. Details
• Flinders, Matthew, 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 : intended to accompany the charts of the late discoveries in those countries (London: John Nichols, 1801), 36 pp. Details
• Flinders, Matthew, 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 [etc], 2 vols (London: G. and W. Nicol, 1814). Details
• Flinders, Matthew, 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, 3 vols (Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1966). Details
• Flinders, Matthew, The Investigator in Port Phillip, April-May 1802 (Malvern: Banks Society Publications, 2002), 36 pp. Details
• Flinders, Matthew: edited by Morgan, Kenneth, Australia circumnavigated: the voyage of Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator, 1801-1803, vol. 2 (London: Haklyut Society, 2015). Details
• Fornasiero, Jean, Monteath, Peter and West-sooby, John, Encountering Terra Australis: the Australian Voyages of Nicholas Baudin and Matthew Flinders (Kent Town, S.A.: Wakefield Press, 2009), 425 pp. Details
• Morgan, Kenneth, Matthew Flinders, maritime explorer of Australia (London: Bloomsbury, 2015), 336 pp. Details
• Mundle, Rob, Flinders: the Man who Mapped Australia (Sydney: Hachette Australia, 2012), 386 pp. Details
• Toft, Klaus, The Navigators: Flinders vs Baudin: the Race Between Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin to Discover the Fabled Passage through the Middle of Australia (Sydney: Duffy and Snellgrove, 2002), 354 pp. Details

Book Sections

• Cooper, H. M., 'Flinders, Matthew (1774-1814), navigator, hydrographer and scientist' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 389-391. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010364b.htm. Details
• Edwards, Phyllis, 'Botany of the Flinders voyage' in Plants and man in Australia, Carr, D. J.; and Carr S. G.M., eds (Sydney: Academic Press, 1981), pp. 139-66. Details
• Estensen, Miriam, 'Matthew Flinders: the man and his life' in Matthew Flinders and his Scientific Gentlemen: the Expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05, Wege, Juliette, ed. (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2006), pp. 1-11. Details
• Sexton, Robert T., 'Flinders' place in the coastal exploration of Australia' in Matthew Flinders and his scientific gentlemen: the expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05, Wege, Juliette, ed. (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2006), pp. 39-47. Details
• Thomas, Sarah, 'The art of travel in the name of science: mobility and erasure in the art of Flinder's Australian voyage, 1801-3' in Empire and mobility in the long nineteenth century, Lambert, D. and Merriman, P., eds (Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press, 2020). Details

Edited Books

• Brunton, Paul ed., Matthew Flinders: Personal Letters from an Extraordinary Life (Sydney: Hordern House in association with the State Library of New South Wales, 2002), 262 pp. Details
• Thomas, Sarah ed., The Encounter, 1802: Art of the Flinders and Baudin Voyages (Adelaide: Art Gallery of South Australia, 2002), 228 pp. Details
• Wege, Juliette ed., Matthew Flinders and his scientific gentlemen: the expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05 (Perth: Western Australian Museum, 2006), 184 pp. Details

Journal Articles

• Beanland, Denver, 'Connections in charting the Great Barrier Reef, 1770 - 1850', Queensland history journal, 24 (3) (2019), 251-67. Details
• Burnby, J. G. L., 'Some Flinders Family History: Connections with Pharmacy', Australian Journal of Pharmacy, 68 (1987), 61-66. Details
• Davis, Michael, 'Encountering Aboriginal Knowledge: Explorer Narratives on North-east Queensland, 1770 to 1820', Aboriginal History, 37 (2014), 29-50. Details
• Edwards, P. I., 'Robert Brown (1773-1858) and the natural history of Matthew Flinders' voyage in H.M.S. Investigator, 1801-1805', Journal of the Society for the Bibliography of Natural History, 7 (4) (1976), 385-407. Details
• Giblin, R.W., 'Flinders, Baudin and Brown at Encounter Bay', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania (1929), 1-6. Details
• Gooch, R., 'Puzzling over Early Flinders Charts', Victorian Historical Journal, 78 (2007), 5-22. Details
• Martin, Anwyn M., 'Captain Matthew Flinders RN, scientist', Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 43 (2015), 43-52. Details
• Monteath, Peter, 'The Making of Matthew Flinders', Journal of the Royal Historical Society of South Australia (2002), 42-51. Details
• Morgan, Kenneth, 'Sir Joseph Banks as patron of the Investigator expedition: natural history, geographical knowledge and Australian exploration', International journal of maritime history, 26 (2014), 235-64. Details
• Morgan, Kenneth, 'Finding longitude: the Investigator expedition, 1801 - 1803', International Journal of Maritime History, 29 (4) (2017), 771-87. Details
• Morrison, Doug, 'Geological surveying in Australia by the navigators James Cook and Matthew Flinders', Preview, 189 (2017), 38-41. Details
• Russell, H.C., 'Astronomical and Meteorological Workers in New South Wales, 1778-1860', Report of the first meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, 1 (1888), 45-94, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/15813133. Details
• West-Sooby, John and Fornasiero, Jean, 'Matthew Flinders through French eyes: Nicholas Baudin's lessons from Encounter Bay', Journal of Pacific History, 52 (1) (2017), 1-14. Details
• Whitley, Gilbert P., 'Some Early Naturalists and Collectors in Australia', Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, xix (1933), 291-304. Details

Resources

• VIAF - Virtual International Authority File, OCLC, https://viaf.org/viaf/7446571. Details
• Wikidata, http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q219895. Details
• 'Flinders, Matthew (1774-1814)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, https://nla.gov.au/nla.party-465836. Details
• Matthew Flinders Electronic Archives, State Library of New South Wales, 2001, http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/flinders/archive.html. Details

Reviews

• Wege, Juliette, ed., Matthew Flinders and his scientific gentlemen: the expedition of HMS Investigator to Australia, 1801-05 (2006)
  Cook, A., Archives of Natural History, 35, (2008), 368-9. Details
• Thomas, Sarah (ed.), The Encounter, 1802: Art of the Flinders and Baudin Voyages, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2002, 228 pp.
  Moyal, Ann, 'Review', Historical Records of Australian Science, 14 (2), (2002), 237-241. https://doi.org/10.1071/HR02011. Details

Seminar Papers

• Brock, John F., 'Cook-Bligh-Flinders-King: the quadrilogy of master mariners' in given in The Discovery Room, Australian Museum, Tuesday 6pm (Sydney: Australian Science History Club, 2005). Details

See also

• Federation and Meteorology, 2001, http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/fam/index_f.html. Details
• Bowen, James; Bowen, Margarita, The Great Barrier Reef: History, Science, Heritage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 454 pp. Details
• Brosse, Jacques; translated by Hochman, Stanley, Great voyages of exploration: the golden age of discovery in the Pacific (Lane Cove, N.S.W.: Doubleday Australia, 1983), 228 pp. Details
• Collins, S. J.; Mate, G.; and Ulm, S., 'Revisiting inscriptions on the Investigator Tree on Sweers Island, Gulf of Carpentaria', Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, 124 (2020), 137-64. Details
• Edwards, P. I. ed., The journal of Peter Good, gardener on Matthew Flinders voyage to Terra Australia 1801-03 (London: British Museum (Natural History), 1981), 213 pp. Details
• Fitzpatrick, Kathleen, 'Franklin, Sir John (1786-1847), rear admiral, Arctic explorer and lieutenant-governor' in Australian dictionary of biography, volume 1: 1788 - 1850 A-H, Douglas Pike, ed. (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 412-415. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A010380b.htm. Details
• George, Alex S.; and Moore, David T. eds, Peter Good: Kew's gardener with Matthew Flinders on HMS Investigator, 1801 - 1803 (Kardinya, W.A.: Four Gables Press, 2022), 280 pp. Details
• Pybus, Cassandra, A very secret trade: the dark story of gentlemen collectors in Tasmania (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2024), 318 pp. https://www.allenandunwin.com/browse/book/Cassandra-Pybus-Very-Secret-Trade-9781761066344. Pages 84-91, 140, 160 - uncle of John Franklin. Details
• Serle, Percival, Dictionary of Australian biography (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1949). Details
• Vallance, T. G.; and Moore, D. T., 'Geological Aspects of the Voyage of H.M.S. Investigator in Australian Waters, 1801-5', Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History): Historical Series, 10 (1) (1982), 1-43. Details