The man who named Australia was found under a London station in 2019
Matthew Flinders first sailed around mainland Australia and popularised its name, calling it kinder to the ear than Terra Australis. Then the French held him captive for over six years, he died soon after coming home, and his grave was lost until railway builders dug near Euston station in 2019.
Flinders was born in 1774 in Donington, Lincolnshire, the son of a surgeon. By his own account, reading Robinson Crusoe persuaded him to go to sea against his friends' wishes, and he joined the Royal Navy at fifteen. In 1791 he sailed with William Bligh on the second breadfruit voyage, the one after the Bounty mutiny, and first touched Australian soil on Bruny Island, off Tasmania. He fought at the Glorious First of June in 1794, watched his patron Captain Thomas Pasley lose a leg to cannon fire, and chose exploration over warfare afterwards.
On the way to New South Wales in 1795 he befriended ship's surgeon George Bass, born only 18 kilometres from Donington. The two explored the coast near Sydney in a tiny open boat called Tom Thumb, crewed by just themselves and a boy. In 1798, commanding the sloop Norfolk, Flinders sailed right around Van Diemen's Land, proving it an island; he named the channel Bass Strait for his friend, and its biggest island later became Flinders Island.
Backed by Sir Joseph Banks, he took HMS Investigator out in 1801 with botanist Robert Brown and artist Ferdinand Bauer aboard. He named Port Lincoln after his home county, and Memory Cove for eight sailors drowned nearby when a cutter capsized. On a large island the kangaroos were so tame the crew could walk up to them, and in thanks for the meat he called it Kangaroo Island. Meeting the French explorer Nicolas Baudin, both men swapped findings despite their nations being at war, and Flinders named the spot Encounter Bay.
Sailing home in 1803, he stopped at the French colony of Isle de France expecting his scientific mission to protect him, and was detained instead. In captivity he wrote up his voyages and argued for calling the continent Australia, a name Governor Macquarie later adopted. He reached Britain in 1810 in poor health and died in 1814, before his book A Voyage to Terra Australis won acclaim. His remains were reburied in Donington on 13 July 2024.
Source: Matthew Flinders
