Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a Royal Navy officer, navigator, and mapmaker who led the first journey around the coast of mainland Australia, which was then called New Holland. He is also credited with being the first person to use the name "Australia" to describe the entire continent, including Van Diemen's Land (now called Tasmania). He believed this name was more pleasant to hear than earlier names like Terra Australis.

Between 1791 and 1803, Flinders took part in several exploratory voyages. The most famous were his journey around Australia and an earlier expedition with George Bass, during which they proved that Van Diemen's Land was an island. While returning to Britain in 1803, Flinders was captured by the French at the colony of Isle de France. Even though Britain and France were at war, Flinders believed his scientific work would allow him to travel safely. However, he remained in captivity for over six years. During this time, he recorded details of his voyages for future publication and explained why he thought the name "Australia" should be used for the continent. His idea was later supported by Governor Macquarie.

Flinders' health had worsened, and although he returned to Britain in 1810, he did not live to see the success of his well-received book and atlas, A Voyage to Terra Australis. By the mid-19th century, the location of his grave was lost. However, in January 2019, archaeologists discovered his remains during an excavation near London's Euston railway station for the High Speed 2 rail project. On 13 July 2024, Flinders was reburied in Donington, Lincolnshire, the village where he was born.

Early life

Matthew Flinders was born in Donington, Lincolnshire, to Matthew Flinders, a surgeon, and his wife Susannah (née Ward). He attended Cowley's Charity School in Donington from 1780 and later studied at the Reverend John Shinglar's Grammar School in Horbling, Lincolnshire.

Flinders said he was encouraged to go to sea even though his friends did not want him to, partly because he read the book Robinson Crusoe. In 1789, at age fifteen, he joined the Royal Navy. With the support of Captain Thomas Pasley, Flinders first worked as a servant on HMS Alert, then became a skilled sailor on HMS Scipio. In July 1790, he was promoted to midshipman on HMS Bellerophon.

Early career

In May 1791, based on Pasley's suggestion, Flinders joined Captain William Bligh's journey on the HMS Providence. The ship was carrying breadfruit from Tahiti to Jamaica. This was Bligh's second trip to transport breadfruit, following his earlier voyage on the HMS Bounty, which ended in failure. The expedition traveled through the Cape of Good Hope and, in February 1792, reached Adventure Bay on the eastern coast of Bruny Island, located off the southeastern coast of what is now called Tasmania. The officers and crew stayed in the area for more than a week to collect water and wood, and to meet with local Aboriginal people. This was Flinders' first time being in the region that is now part of the Commonwealth of Australia.

After arriving in Tahiti in April 1792 to gather breadfruit plants for transport to Jamaica, the ship sailed west. Instead of returning through Adventure Bay, Bligh chose to travel north of the Australian continent, passing through the Torres Strait. There, near Zagai Island, the crew faced a fight with armed local men in a group of canoes. The conflict resulted in the deaths of several islanders and one crew member. The expedition reached Jamaica in February 1793, delivered the breadfruit plants, and then returned to England. Flinders left the ship in London in August 1793 after spending over two years at sea.

In September 1793, Flinders rejoined the HMS Bellerophon, now under the command of Captain Pasley. In 1794, Flinders participated in this ship during the battle known as the Glorious First of June. This was the first and largest naval battle between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars. Flinders recorded a detailed account of the battle, including how Captain Pasley "lost his leg due to a shot from an 18-pounder cannon that entered through the barricades on the quarter-deck." Both Pasley and Flinders survived the battle. After this experience, Flinders decided to focus on exploratory missions rather than military naval duties.

Exploration around New South Wales

Flinders wanted to go on adventures, so he joined the ship HMS Reliance as a midshipman in 1795. This ship was traveling to New South Wales to bring Captain John Hunter, the new governor of the British colony there. During the journey, Flinders became friends with George Bass, the ship's surgeon. Bass was three years older than Flinders and was born in Aswarby, a town 18 kilometers (11 miles) from Donington.

Reliance reached Port Jackson in September 1795. Soon after, Bass and Flinders organized an expedition in a small boat called Tom Thumb. They sailed with a boy named William Martin to Botany Bay and up the Georges River. In March 1796, the two explorers, again with William Martin, took a larger boat named Tom Thumb II. They sailed south from Port Jackson but had to beach their boat at Red Point (Port Kembla). There, two Aboriginal men helped them by guiding the boat to Lake Illawarra, where they dried their gunpowder and got water from another group of Aboriginal people. On their return to Sydney, they stopped at Wattamolla and explored parts of Port Hacking (Deeban).

In 1798, Flinders, now a lieutenant, was in charge of the sloop Norfolk. He was ordered to sail beyond Furneaux's Islands and, if a strait was found, to pass through it and return via the southern end of Van Diemen's Land. Earlier, Flinders and Bass had both explored the area separately but had not confirmed the existence of a strait. Flinders, with Bass and his crew, sailed Norfolk along the uncharted northern and western coasts of Van Diemen's Land, rounded Cape Pillar, and returned to Furneaux's Islands. This journey proved that a strait existed between Van Diemen's Land and the mainland. The passage was named Bass Strait after Flinders' friend, and the largest island in the strait was later named Flinders Island in his honor. During the voyage, Flinders and Bass rowed the ship's dinghy up the River Derwent, where they met Aboriginal Tasmanians for the first and only time.

In 1799, Flinders was allowed to explore the coast north of Port Jackson, and the sloop Norfolk was assigned to him again. By this time, Bass had returned to Britain, and Flinders brought his brother, Samuel Flinders, on the voyage. He was also joined by a Kuringgai man named Bungaree. They left on 8 July 1799 and arrived at Moreton Bay six days later. Flinders landed at Woody Point and named a nearby point 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) west of it Redcliffe because of its red cliffs. That point is now called Clontarf Point, while the town of Redcliffe to the north uses the name Redcliffe. On 19 July, Flinders landed on Coochiemudlo Island while searching for a river in southern Moreton Bay.

In the northern part of Moreton Bay, Flinders explored a narrow waterway he named the Pumice Stone River (now called the Pumicestone Passage). Most of Flinders' interactions with Aboriginal people in the area were friendly, but on 15 July, a spear was thrown at him, and a local man was wounded by gunfire. Flinders named the place where this happened Point Skirmish. While anchored in Pumicestone, Flinders and three crew members, including Bungaree, traveled overland several kilometers and climbed Beerburrum Mountain. They turned back after encountering the steep cliffs of Mount Tibrogargan on about 26 July.

After leaving Moreton Bay, Flinders continued north as far as Hervey Bay before returning south. They reached Sydney on 20 August 1799.

Command ofInvestigator

In March 1800, Flinders joined the ship Reliance again and returned to Britain. During the journey, the Antipodes Islands were found and mapped. Flinders' work had caught the interest of many scientists at the time, especially the important scientist Sir Joseph Banks. Flinders gave credit to Banks in his book titled Observations on the Coasts of Van Diemen's Land, on Bass's Strait, etc. Banks used his connection with Earl Spencer to persuade the Admiralty about the need for an expedition to map the coastline of New Holland. Because of this, in January 1801, Flinders was chosen to lead the ship HMS Investigator, a 334-ton sloop, and was promoted to commander the next month.

Investigator left for New Holland on July 18, 1801. The expedition included a plant scientist named Robert Brown, a botanical artist named Ferdinand Bauer, a landscape artist named William Westall, a gardener named Peter Good, a geological assistant named John Allen, and an astronomer named John Crosley. Vallance et al. noted that compared to the Baudin expedition, this group was a "small team of scientists," which showed "British tendency to spend less on scientific work." The future explorer John Franklin, who was related to Flinders by marriage, served as a midshipman on the voyage.

Exploration of the Australian coastline

On December 6, 1801, while aboard the ship Investigator, Matthew Flinders reached and named Cape Leeuwin. He then traveled along the southern coast of Australia. The expedition anchored in King George Sound and stayed there for a month to explore the area. Local Aboriginal people first told Flinders’ group to return to where they came from, but relations later improved. One Aboriginal person joined the ship’s marines in military training with muskets. Near Oyster Harbour, Flinders found a copper plate left the previous year by Captain Christopher Dixson of the ship Elligood.

As Flinders approached Port Lincoln, which he named after his home county of Lincolnshire, eight crew members were lost when a small boat they were using to return to the ship capsized. Flinders named nearby Memory Cove in their honor. On March 21, 1802, the expedition reached a large island where many kangaroos were seen. Flinders and his crew landed and found the animals so tame they could walk close to them. They killed 31 kangaroos and named the island Kangaroo Island in gratitude for the food. The seals on the island were more aggressive, and one crew member was severely bitten by a seal.

On April 8, 1802, while sailing east, Flinders saw the French ship Géographe, commanded by Nicolas Baudin, who was also on an expedition. Despite believing their countries were at war, Flinders and Baudin shared information about their discoveries. Flinders named the bay where they met Encounter Bay.

Continuing along the coast, Flinders explored Port Phillip, the future site of Melbourne. He had not known that John Murray had explored the area only ten weeks earlier aboard HMS Lady Nelson. Flinders climbed Arthur’s Seat, the highest point near the southern part of the bay, and described the land as “pleasing and, in many parts, fertile.” He also climbed the You Yangs and left a paper scroll with the ship’s name in a pile of stones at the peak.

As supplies ran low, Flinders traveled to Sydney, arriving on May 9, 1802. He spent 12 weeks and 2 days there to restock supplies and recruit more crew for the journey to northern Australia. Bungaree, an Aboriginal man who had traveled with Flinders before, joined the expedition, as did another Aboriginal man named Nanbaree. Captain John Murray and his ship Lady Nelson would accompany Investigator as a supply ship.

Flinders set sail again on July 22, 1802, heading north to survey the coast of what would later be called Queensland. They anchored at Sandy Cape, where Bungaree helped arrange a feast with the Batjala people, who shared porpoise blubber. In early August, Flinders named a bay Port Curtis. When local people threw stones at the crew, Flinders ordered muskets to be fired above their heads to scare them away.

As the expedition traveled north, navigation became harder due to the Great Barrier Reef. Flinders called these reefs “Barrier Reefs” in his 1814 book. Lady Nelson was too damaged to continue, so Captain Murray returned to Sydney with his crew and Nanbaree, who wished to go home. Flinders exited the reef near the Whitsunday Islands and sailed to the Torres Strait. On October 29, they reached Murray Island, where they traded iron for shell necklaces with local people.

The expedition entered the Gulf of Carpentaria on November 4 and mapped the coast to Arnhem Land. At Blue Mud Bay, a skirmish occurred when the crew collected timber, resulting in four spear wounds to a crew member and the deaths of two Aboriginal men. At Caledon Bay, Flinders took a 14-year-old boy named Woga captive to force local people to return a stolen axe. The axe was not returned, but Flinders released the boy after one day. On February 17, 1803, near Cape Wilberforce, Flinders met a Makassan trepanging fleet led by Pobasso, from whom he learned about the region.

During this part of the voyage, much of Investigator was found to be rotten. Flinders decided to complete the journey around the continent without further detailed coastal surveys. He traveled to Sydney via Timor and the western and southern coasts of Australia. On the way, Flinders threw away two wrought-iron anchors, which were later found by divers in 1973 at Middle Island, Recherche Archipelago, Western Australia. The anchors are now displayed at the South Australian Maritime Museum in Port Adelaide and the National Museum of Australia in Canberra.

Arriving in Sydney on June 9, 1803, Investigator was judged to be too damaged to use and was condemned.

Attempted return to England and imprisonment

Flinders could not find another ship suitable for his exploration, so he traveled to Britain as a passenger on HMS Porpoise. However, the ship ran aground on Wreck Reefs, part of the Great Barrier Reef, about 1,100 kilometers (700 miles) north of Sydney. Flinders guided the ship's small boat across the open sea back to Sydney and arranged for the rescue of the crew members left behind. He then took command of the 29-ton schooner HMS Cumberland to return to England. However, the poor condition of the ship forced him to stop at French-controlled Isle de France (now known as Mauritius) for repairs on 17 December 1803, just three months after Baudin had died there.

War with France had started again the previous May, but Flinders hoped his French passport (even though it was issued for the ship Investigator, not Cumberland) and the scientific purpose of his mission would allow him to continue. Despite this, and knowing Baudin's earlier encounter with Flinders, the French governor, Charles Mathieu Isidore Decaen, detained Flinders. The relationship between them worsened: Flinders was offended by his treatment, and Decaen was insulted by Flinders' refusal to accept an invitation to dine with him and his wife. Decaen doubted the scientific mission because Cumberland carried no scientists, and a search of Flinders' ship uncovered a trunk of papers (including messages from the New South Wales Governor Philip Gidley King) not allowed under his scientific passport. One message was specifically to the British Admiralty requesting more troops in case Decaen attacked Port Jackson. Among the seized items were the three logs of HMS Investigator, of which only two volumes were returned to Flinders. These are now held by the State Library of New South Wales. The third volume was later placed in the Admiralty Library and is now in The National Archives (United Kingdom).

Decaen sent the matter to the French government, but delays occurred due to the long journey and the confusion of war. Eventually, on 11 March 1806, Napoleon approved the decision, but Decaen still refused to release Flinders. By this time, Decaen believed Flinders' knowledge of the island's defenses might encourage Britain to attack it. However, in June 1809, the Royal Navy began a blockade of the island, and in June 1810, Flinders was released. Traveling via the Cape of Good Hope on the ship Olympia, which was carrying messages back to Britain, Flinders received a promotion to post-captain before continuing to England.

Flinders was confined for the first few months of his captivity but later had more freedom to move around the island and access his papers. In November 1804, he sent the first map of the landmass he had charted (Y46/1) back to England. This was the only map made by Flinders where he used the name "Australia" or "Terra Australis" instead of "New Holland," the name used by James Cook in 1770 and Abel Tasman in 1644. He used "New Holland" only for the western part of the continent. Due to delays caused by his long imprisonment, the first published map of the Australian continent was the Freycinet Map of 1811, created from the Baudin expedition.

Flinders finally returned to England in October 1810. He was in poor health but immediately began preparing his book, A Voyage to Terra Australis, and his atlas of maps for publication. The full title of the book, first published in London in July 1814, included a summary description: 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. Original copies of the Atlas to Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis are held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney as a portfolio that accompanied the book and included engravings of 16 maps, four plates of views, and ten plates of Australian flora. The book was republished in three volumes in 1964, with a reproduction of the portfolio. Flinders' map of Terra Australis or Australia (reversing the two parts of the double name from his 1804 manuscript) was first published in January 1814, and the remaining maps were published before his atlas and book.

Death and reburial

Matthew Flinders died on July 19, 1814, at the age of 40, from kidney disease at his home in London, located at 14 London Street. This street was later renamed Maple Street and is now the site of the BT Tower. He died the day after his book and atlas were published. Flinders did not see the completed work, as he was unconscious at the time. His wife placed the volumes on his bed so he could touch them. On July 23, 1814, he was buried in the burial ground of St James's Church, Piccadilly, which was located near Hampstead Road in Camden, London. This burial ground was used from 1790 to 1853. By 1852, the location of his grave was forgotten due to changes made to the burial ground.

In 1878, the area became known as St James's Gardens, Camden, with only a few gravestones remaining. Part of the gardens was later built over during the expansion of Euston railway station, and Flinders’ grave was thought to be under a station platform. The gardens were closed to the public in 2017 for work on the High Speed 2 (HS2) rail project, which requires further expansion of Euston station.

In January 2019, archaeologists located Flinders’ grave. His coffin was identified by a well-preserved lead plate. A film of the discovery and the exhumation was shown in a British television documentary in September 2020. It was planned to re-bury his remains, after they were examined by osteo-archaeologists, at a location to be decided.

After his grave was found, the parish church of Donington, Lincolnshire—Flinders’ birthplace—received many visitors. The Matthew Flinders Bring Him Home Group, the Britain–Australia Society, and Flinders’ descendants campaigned to have his remains buried at the Church of St Mary and the Holy Rood in Donington. On October 17, 2019, HS2 Ltd announced that Flinders’ remains could be reinterred in the church, where he was baptised. Permission was granted by the Diocese of Lincoln for reburial in the north aisle. His remains were reburied there on July 13, 2024. The coffin used for his reburial is a replica of the original, made by one of the archaeologists who discovered his grave in 2019. The church also displayed a recently found portrait, believed to show Flinders in his later years, created by artist William Westall.

Family

On 17 April 1801, Flinders married his close friend Ann Chappelle (1772–1852) and wanted to take her with him to Port Jackson. However, the Admiralty had strict rules that did not allow wives to travel with captains. Flinders brought Ann on board the ship and planned to ignore the rules, but the Admiralty discovered his plans and scolded him for his poor decision. They ordered him to remove Ann from the ship. This event is clearly recorded in letters exchanged between Flinders and his main supporter, Sir Joseph Banks, in May 1801.

As a result, Ann was forced to remain in England and did not see her husband for nine years. During this time, Flinders was imprisoned on the Isle de France (Mauritius, which was then a French colony) on his return journey. When they reunited, Matthew and Ann had one daughter, Anne (1 April 1812 – 1892), who later married William Petrie (1821–1908). In 1853, the governments of New South Wales and Victoria gave a late pension of £100 per year to Ann’s mother, equal to A$15,414 in 2022. Ann accepted this pension on behalf of her young son, William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who later became a successful archaeologist and Egyptologist.

Naming of Australia and discovery of Flinders' 1804 map Y46/1

Flinders' map Y46/1 was never lost. It had been kept and recorded by the UK Hydrographic Office before 1828. Geoffrey C. Ingleton mentioned Y46/1 in his book Matthew Flinders Navigator and Chartmaker on page 438. By 1987, every library in Australia had access to a microfiche copy of Flinders Y46/1. In 2001–2002, the Mitchell Library in Sydney displayed Y46/1 at their "Matthew Flinders – The Ultimate Voyage" exhibition. Paul Brunton called Y46/1 "the memorial of the great naval explorer Matthew Flinders." The first hard-copy of Y46/1 and its cartouche was retrieved from the UK Hydrographic Office (Taunton, Somerset) by historian Bill Fairbanks in 2004. On 2 April 2004, copies of the chart were presented by three of Matthew Flinders's descendants to the Governor of New South Wales, in London, to be presented in turn to the people of Australia through their parliaments by 14 November, the 200th anniversary of the chart leaving Mauritius. This celebration marked the first time the naming of Australia was formally recognised.

However, Flinders was not the first to use the word "Australia," nor was he the first to apply the name specifically to the continent. He owned a copy of Alexander Dalrymple's 1771 book An Historical Collection of Voyages and Discoveries in the South Pacific Ocean, and it seems likely he borrowed it from there, but he applied it specifically to the continent, not the whole South Pacific region. In 1804, he wrote to his brother: "I call the whole island Australia, or Terra Australis." Later that year, he wrote to Sir Joseph Banks and mentioned "my general chart of Australia," a map that Flinders had constructed from all the information he had accumulated while he was in Australian waters and finished while he was detained by the French in Mauritius. Flinders explained in his letter to Banks:

Flinders continued to promote the use of the word until his arrival in London in 1810. Here he found that Banks did not approve of the name and had not unpacked the chart he had sent him, and that New Holland and Terra Australis were still in general use. As a result, a book by Flinders was published under the title A Voyage to Terra Australis and his published map of 1814 also shows Terra Australis as the first of the two name options, despite his objections. The final proofs were brought to him on his deathbed, but he was unconscious. The book was published on 18 July 1814, but Flinders did not regain consciousness and died the next day, never knowing that his name for the continent would be accepted.

Banks wrote a draft of an introduction to Flinders' Voyage, referring to the map published by Melchisédech Thévenot in Relations des Divers Voyages (1663), and made well known to English readers by Emanuel Bowen's adaptation of it, A Complete Map of the Southern Continent, published in John Campbell's editions of John Harris's Navigantium atque Itinerantium Bibliotheca, or Voyages and Travels (1744–48, and 1764). Banks said in the draft:

Although Thévenot said that he had taken his chart from the one inlaid into the floor of the Amsterdam Town Hall, in fact it appears to be an almost exact copy of that of Joan Blaeu in his Archipelagus Orientalis sive Asiaticus published in 1659. It seems to have been Thévenot who introduced a differentiation between Nova Hollandia to the west and Terre Australe to the east of the meridian corresponding to 135° East of Greenwich, emphasised by the latitude staff running down that meridian, as there is no such division on Blaeu's map.

In his Voyage, Flinders wrote:

…with the accompanying note at the bottom of the page:

Flinders' book was widely read and gave the term Australia general currency. Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales, became aware of Flinders' preference for the name Australia and used it in his dispatches to England. On 12 December 1817, he recommended to the Colonial Office that it be officially adopted. In 1824 the British Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia.

Legacy of Flinders

In Australia, statues of Flinders include those:

In his home country of England, the first statue of Flinders was built on March 16, 2006, which was his birthday. It was placed in his hometown of Donington. The statue also shows a cat named Trim, who traveled with Flinders during his journeys. In July 2014, on the 200th anniversary of his death, a large bronze statue of Flinders was created by sculptor Mark Richards. It was revealed at Australia House in London by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and later placed at Euston station near the location believed to be Flinders’ grave.

Flinders’ exploration of the Hervey Bay area is remembered by a monument called Matthew Flinders Lookout. It is located at the top of a hill facing the bay in Dayman Park, Urangan (25°17′21″S 152°54′29″E / 25.2893°S 152.9080°E / -25.2893; 152.9080).

The Captain Flinders Memorial is a stone monument near Macondé, Mauritius, on the edge of the ocean. It is close to where Flinders landed on December 17, 1803. The monument has a brass plaque with the title “Captain Matthew Flinders RN 1774–1814, Explorer, Navigator and Hydrographer.” The plaque shows Flinders sitting at his desk with a map of the Indian Ocean and Australia. At the bottom, it states that the monument was unveiled on November 6, 2003, by HRH The Earl of Wessex KCVO in the presence of the president of Mauritius, Sir Anerood Jugnauth PC, KCMG, QC, to mark the 200th anniversary of Flinders’ arrival in Mauritius on December 15, 1803.

Bass and Flinders Point in the southern part of Cronulla, New South Wales, has a monument honoring George Bass and Matthew Flinders, who explored the Port Hacking estuary.

Although Flinders never named any features after himself during his discoveries, his name is now linked to more than 100 places and geographical features in Australia. These include Flinders Island in Bass Strait, but not the Flinders Island in South Australia, which he named after his younger brother, Samuel Flinders.

Flinders is especially important in South Australia, where he is considered the main explorer of the region. Landmarks named after him include the Flinders Ranges and Flinders Ranges National Park; Flinders Column at Mount Lofty; Flinders Chase National Park on Kangaroo Island; Flinders Parade in Victor Harbor; Flinders University; Flinders Medical Centre; the suburb Flinders Park; and Flinders Street in Adelaide.

In Victoria, places named after him include Flinders Peak; Flinders Street in Melbourne (home to Flinders Street railway station); the suburb of Flinders; the federal electorate of Flinders; and the Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College in Geelong.

Flinders Bay in Western Australia and Flinders Way in Canberra also honor him.

Educational institutions named after him include Flinders Park Primary School in South Australia and Matthew Flinders Anglican College on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. A former electoral district of the Queensland Parliament was named Flinders. There are also Flinders Highways in both Queensland and South Australia.

Flinders’ life was dramatized in radio plays titled They Sailed on Friday, The Mapmaker, and My Love Must Wait (the last was adapted by Catherine Shepherd from the novel by Ernestine Hill).

Flindersia is a group of fourteen tree species in the citrus family. It was named by Robert Brown, a botanist on the Investigator, to honor Flinders. The eastern school whiting, Sillago flindersi, is also named after him.

A bust of Flinders was shown on the front side of the Australian 10 Shillings 1961–1965 ND Banknote.

In 1964, Flinders appeared on a postage stamp issued by the Postmaster-General’s Department. He was also honored again in 1980 and in 1998 with George Bass.

On June 30, 2019, the Royal Australian Navy ordered the construction of HMAS Flinders, a Hunter-class frigate to be built by BAE Systems Australia in Osborne.

Flinders landed on Coochiemudlo Island on July 19, 1799, while searching for a river in the southern part of Moreton Bay, Queensland, Australia. The island’s residents celebrate Flinders Day annually, usually on a weekend near July 19, the date of his landing.

To honor his legacy, a new pub in Euston, near where his remains were found, has been named The Captain Flinders.

Flinders proposed using iron bars to correct magnetic issues caused by iron on ships. These bars are now known as Flinders bars.

Flinders created the term “dodge tide” to describe his observations of tides in the shallow Spencer and St Vincent’s Gulfs, which seemed inactive for days at certain locations. Similar phenomena have also been found in the Gulf of Mexico and the Irish Sea.

Flinders, who was the cousin by marriage of Sir John Franklin (John’s mother, Hannah, was the sister of Matthew’s stepmother, Elizabeth), inspired Franklin’s love for navigation and took him on a voyage aboard the Investigator.

Works

• A Voyage to Terra Australis, with an accompanying Atlas. 2 volumes. – London: G & W Nicol, 18 July 1814
• Australia Circumnavigated: The Journal of HMS Investigator, 1801–1803. Edited by Kenneth Morgan, 2 volumes. The Hakluyt Society, London, 2015. [1]
• Trim: Being the True Story of a Brave Seafaring Cat.
• Private Journal 1803–1814. Edited with an introduction by Anthony J. Brown and Gillian Dooley. Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2005.
• Flinders, Matthew (1806). "Observations upon the Marine Barometer, Made during the Study of the Coasts of New Holland and New South Wales, in the Years 1801, 1802, and 1803". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 96: 239–266. doi: 10.1098/rstl.1806.0012. S2CID 110451310.
• Flinders, Matthew (1805). "Concerning the Differences in the Magnetic Needle, on Board the Investigator, Arising from a Change in the Direction of the Ship's Head". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 95: 186–197. doi: 10.1098/rstl.1805.0012.