MATTHEW FLINDERS was born in England in 1774. After reading
Robinson Crusoe as a small boy, he set his heart on adventure. In 1789, defying his father’s wishes that he enter the field of medicine, Flinders volunteered his services to the British Navy.
His first voyage, in 1791, was on Bligh’s second mission to Tahiti. Bligh recognised Flinders’ skills, especially with chart-making, and gave him opportunities that would change the course of his life. This was not the only part of his trip that would stay with him until the end: Flinders may also have contracted gonorrhoea from a Tahitian lover. Complications from this disease possibly shortened his life. Flinders was forty years old when he died in 1814.
Between Tahiti and his deathbed, Flinders achieved more than most: he played an important role in the British victory of June 1794 during the French revolutionary wars, married, became the greatest early navigator of Australia, and explored the Australian coastline with George Bass in his eight-foot long vessel Tom Thumb and later Tom Thumb II. His account of his journeys, A Voyage to Terra Australis, is one of the great achievements of our literature.
MATTHEW FLINDERS was born in England in 1774. In 1789, defying his fathers wishes that he enter the field of medicine, Flinders volunteered his services to the British Navy. He became the greatest early navigator of Australia, and explored the Australian coastline with George Bass in his eight-foot long vessel Tom Thumb and later Tom Thumb II. His account of his journeys, A Voyage to Terra Australis, is one of the great achievements of our literature.
TIM FLANNERY is a bestselling writer, scientist and explorer. He has published over a dozen books, most recently Among the Islands: Adventures in the Pacific. In 2011 he was appointed chief commissioner of the Australian Climate Commission.