A Voyage to Terra Australis

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 was a sea voyage journal written by English mariner and explorer Matthew Flinders. It describes his circumnavigation of the Australian continent in the early years of the 19th century, and his imprisonment by the French on the island of Mauritius from 1804–1810.[1]

A Voyage to Terra Australis
Map showing Matthew Flinders' voyages aboard HMS Investigator
AuthorMatthew Flinders
CountryEngland
LanguageEnglish
PublisherG. and W. Nicol
Publication date
1814
Media typePrint
Pages2 volumes

Circumnavigation
Entrance to Port Lincoln in South Australia; engraving by John Pye.

The book told in great detail of his explorations and included maps and drawings of the profiles of unknown coastline areas of what Flinders called "Terra Australis Incognita". By this, he was referring to the great unknown Southern continent that had been sighted and partly mapped by prominent earlier mariners such as Captain James Cook. The ship Flinders commanded, HMS Investigator, was a 334-ton sloop. Up until this time the circumnavigation of Australia which was necessary to prove it was a single continent land mass, had never been completed. He achieved this by circling the island continent, leaving Sydney in July 1801, heading north, through Torres Strait,[2] across the top of the continent westward, and south along the western coastline. Flinders reached and named Cape Leeuwin on 6 December 1802, and proceeded to make a survey along the southern coast of the Australian mainland, and then completing the journey, arrived back in Sydney in June 1803, despite the dangerous condition of his ship.

Returning Home To England

Flinders' further description of imprisonment on Mauritius preceded his final return to England in October 1810 in poor health: despite this he immediately resumed work preparing A Voyage to Terra Australis and his maps for publication. In January 1811 approval for publication of his narrative was given by the Admiralty, but payment was restricted to the atlas and charts sections. Flinders was responsible for funding the major work.[3] The full title of this book which was first published in London in July 1814 was given, as was common at the time, a synoptic 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".[4]

Publications
Voyage to Terra Australis: Title Page

Original publications of the Atlas to Flinders' Voyage to Terra Australis are held at the Mitchell Library in Sydney, Australia, as a portfolio that accompanied the book and included engravings of 16 maps, 4 plates of views, and 10 plates of Australian flora.[5]

The book was republished in 3 volumes in 1966 accompanied by a reproduction of the portfolio.[6] Flinders' map of Terra Australia was first published in January 1814[7] and the remaining maps were published before his atlas and book. On 19 July 1814, the day after the book and atlas was published, Matthew Flinders died, at the age of 40.[1]

See also

References
  1. Hello, H.M. (1966). "Flinders, Matthew (1774–1814)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 1 October 2008 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  2. Blainey, Geoffrey: The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia's History, Melbourne, Macmillan 1982 Pg 59 ISBN 0732911176.
  3. Tiley, Robert (2002). Australian Navigators:Picking up Shells and Catching Butterflies in an Age of Revolution. East Roseville NSW: Kangaroo Press. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-7318-1118-2.
  4. "Review of A Voyage to Terra Australis by Matthew Flinders". The Quarterly Review. 12: 1–46. October 1814.
  5. State Library of New South Wales /Catalogue. Library.sl.nsw.gov.au. Retrieved on 2013-08-02.
  6. Flinders, Matthew (1966) [1814], 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. (Facsimile ed.), Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia Facsimile reprint of: London : G. and W. Nicol, 1814 ed. In two volumes, with an Atlas (3 volumes).
  7. All maps published by the British H/Office are dated.

Further reading
  • Brown, Anthony (2009), "I call the Whole Island Australia: Matthew Flinders and the naming of Australia", Australian Heritage, Hallmark Editions, Winter: 35–42, ISSN 1832-8091, archived from the original on 24 January 2014, retrieved 5 February 2014
  • Brown, Robert; Moore, D. T.; Vallance, T. G.; Groves, Eric W. (2001), Nature's investigator : the diary of Robert Brown in Australia, 1801–1805 / compiled by T.G. Vallance, D.T. Moore & E.W. Groves, Australian Biological Resources Study, ISBN 978-0642568175
  • Fornasiero, F. Jean; Monteath, Peter; West-Sooby, John (2010), Encountering Terra Australis : the Australian voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders, Wakefield Press, ISBN 9781862548749
  • Rodgers, K. A. (February 2014), "A Voyage to Terra Australis", The Australasian Coin & Banknote Magazine, 17 (1): 34–36, ISSN 1440-4508 (Coin issue by the Royal Australian Mint honouring the 200th anniversary of the publication of Flinders' Journal)
  • Smith, Samuel; Monteath, Peter (2002), Sailing with Flinders : the journal of seaman Samuel Smith / edited with an introduction by Peter Monteath, Corkwood Press, ISBN 978-1876247133
  • Vallance, T. G.; Moore, D. T. (1982), Geological aspects of the voyage of HMS Investigator in Australian waters, 1801-5, British Museum (Natural History), OCLC 8263834, retrieved 5 February 2014
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