author
Matthew Flinders
1774–1814
An English navigator and cartographer, he made the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia and helped bring the name "Australia" into common use. His charts were so careful and complete that they shaped understanding of the continent for generations.
2 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Donington, Lincolnshire, on 16 March 1774, Matthew Flinders joined the Royal Navy as a teenager after deciding he wanted a life at sea. He developed into a gifted navigator and surveyor, and during voyages to Australia in the 1790s he explored parts of the southeast coast and worked with George Bass on journeys that helped confirm Tasmania was separate from the mainland.
Flinders is best known for commanding HMS Investigator on the voyage of 1801–1803, during which he completed the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia. Along the way he charted large stretches of coastline with remarkable accuracy and helped show that the landmass then often called New Holland was a single continent. He is also widely remembered for using the name Australia in a way that helped it gain lasting acceptance.
His career was marked by hardship as well as achievement. On his return journey to England, he was detained for years on Mauritius after the outbreak of war between Britain and France. Flinders spent much of his final period preparing his charts and account of the voyage, and A Voyage to Terra Australis appeared in 1814, the year he died in London on 19 July.