Matthew Flinders aggregated collection of papers

fonds

1794-1854

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Watercolours, Paintings, Objects

9684687

Matthew Finders was born at Donington, Lincolnshire on 16 March 1774. In 1789 he entered the Royal Navy and two years later joined HMS Providence as a midshipman, serving under William Bligh on his second 'breadfruit voyage' to Tahiti. After his return to England in 1793 he took part in the naval battle of the Glorious First of June 1794 on HMS Bellerophon. The following year he sailed for New South Wales on HMS Reliance. Also on board, as surgeon, was George Bass. Shortly after arriving in Sydney the two men explored Botany Bay and the Georges River in a small open boat called the Tom Thumb. In 1796 Flinders visited Norfolk Island in the Reliance and on his return made a second survey of the south coast with Bass in another open boat also called the Tom Thumb, this time reaching Lake Illawarra. Flinders' next voyage was to Capetown in the Reliance in order to bring back livestock for the colony. In 1798, by then a lieutenant, he accompanied the schooner Francis south to the Furneaux Islands to salvage cargo from the wrecked merchant ship Sydney Cove. During the voyage he carried out valuable survey work among the islands. After another visit to Norfolk Island he was given command of the sloop Norfolk with orders to discover whether a strait existed separating Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) from the mainland. In company with Bass, Flinders sailed in October 1798, passed through Bass Strait and circumnavigated Van Diemen's Land thus proving it to be an island. Next year he took the Norfolk northward to explore Glass House Bay (Moreton Bay) and Hervey Bay in the hope of finding large rivers by means of which the interior could be penetrated. He was unsuccessful in this.

In 1800, Flinders returned to England in the Reliance where he published Observations on the coasts of Van Diemen's Land, on Bass's Strait and its islands, and on part of the coast of New South Wales. He came to the attention of Sir Joseph Banks who backed his plan to survey the entire Australian coastline with the result that in January 1801 he was promoted to the rank of commander and given command of HMS Investigator. In April he married Ann Chappelle but permission for her to accompany him on the voyage was refused. He sailed in July and sighted the west coast of Australia in December. Commencing his survey at Cape Leeuwin he sailed eastward and in April 1802 met the French navigator Nicholas Baudin, who was on a similar mission, in Encounter Bay. By May he had reached Sydney, and after overhauling his ship, pushed on northward. However the Investigator proved to be so rotten that after charting the Gulf of Carpentaria, Flinders was obliged to abandon the survey. He continued sailing westward, circumnavigated the continent and arrived back in Sydney in June 1803. With the Investigator out of action Flinders sailed for England as a passenger in HMS Porpoise in the hope of obtaining another vessel with which to complete the survey. Shortly after departing the Porpoise struck a reef and was lost. Flinders sailed her cutter back to Sydney and arranged for the rescue of his stranded shipmates. He himself set out again in the schooner Cumberland. The little vessel leaked so badly that after passing through Torres Strait he decided to seek assistance at the French island of Mauritius (or Isle of France) which he reached in December 1803. Unknown to him war had broken out between Britain and France and although he held a French passport, the governor, General de Caen, imprisoned him as a suspected spy. Flinders was detained on Mauritius for six and a half years during which time he worked on his journals, log books and charts. The last five years of his confinement were spent in comparative comfort in the island's interior among friends. He was finally released in June 1810 and immediately sailed for England.

Flinders was promoted to captain and settled down to complete his monumental book A voyage to Terra Australis. However his health was failing and he died on 19 July 1814, the day after he received the first copy from the publisher. He was survived by his wife, Ann, and a daughter, Anne, who in due course was the mother of the famous Egyptologist, Sir William Flinders Petrie.

Collection 1: Matthew Flinders papers, 1798-1821
Presented by Sir W.M. Flinders Petrie, grandson of Matthew Flinders, 1922

Collection 2: Matthew Flinders and Ann Flinders further papers, 1794-1854
Purchased from Christie's, London, February 2025

Out of copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales