Matthew Flinders

Matthew Flinders (1774-1814), British explorer and navigator who charted the Australian coastline, born at Donington, near Boston, England. A self-educated navigator, he sailed to New South Wales in 1795 and explored an unknown strait now known as Bass Strait between Australia and Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania). On his return to England, he took command (1801) of an expedition to investigate the coastline of Australia, which he circled in a counterclockwise direction, threading the Great Barrier Reef through what is now called Flinders Passage and surveying the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north. His charts of the coastline were remarkably accurate. After completing his work in 1803, he sailed for England. His ship was wrecked on an uncharted reef, however, and he returned to Australia in the ship's cutter, a remarkable 1127-km (about 700-mi) journey.

Setting sail in another vessel, plagued by leaks, Flinders was forced to put in at Mauritius, then a possession of France, which was at war with England. Imprisoned for almost seven years as a spy, Flinders spent his time recording the first method of compensating for compass deviations caused by iron in a ship. Released in 1810, he returned to England and spent three years writing A Voyage to Terra Australis (1814), published on the day of his death. The name of this outstanding hydrographer is perpetuated in a river in Queensland, several islands, a mountain range, and a naval depot near Melbourne. Flinders's consistent use of the term Australia for this part of the world led to acceptance of the name.