BASS AND FLINDERS

MATTHEW FLINDERS

• Flinders was born in a small town near Bass in 1774.
• He joined the British Navy at the age of fifteen after the novel Robinson Crusoe inspired him to explore the world.
• He arrived in Australia in 1795.
• He went on many expeditions with Bass.
• He circumnavigated Australia in 1802 and proved it was a continent.
• He wrote many books and became famous.

GEORGE BASS

• George Bass was born on 30th of January 1771 in Lincolnshire, England.
• His father died when he was six so he moved to Boston.
• He became a surgeon at the age of eighteen and two months later he joined the navy as a navy surgeon.
• In 1795 he arrived in Australia and met Matthew Flinders.
• He died in 1803

TOM THUMB

• When Bass and Flinders met they bought a small boat which they named Tom Thumb.
• They explored the Georges river in 1795.
• The year later they went on an expedition to Port Hacking which they named after the man who had discovered it the year earlier.

CIRCUMNAVIGATING TASMANIA

• In 1798 Bass and Flinders began a journey to Van Diemen's Land.
• They were the first people to circumnavigate Van Diemen's Land.
• Bass collected different plants only native to Van Diemen's Land on the voyage.
• Flinders insisted on their return that the body of water between it and the mainland be named the Bass Strait.

FLINDERS EXPLORING AUSTRALIA

• Between 1801 and 1803 Matthew Flinders went on many voyages around the Australian coast.
• Flinders was on a race against the French explorer, Nicolas Baudin to circumnavigate Australia first.
• He was the first person to circumnavigate the whole Australian coast.

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