Get to know Matthew Flinders - Navigator at half-day museum symposium

by Australian National Maritime Museum on 22 Oct 2010 He is the man credited with giving Australia it’s name, and on Sunday 31 October 2010 the Australian National Maritime Museum has invited four eminent speakers to join in celebrating the life and achievements of Matthew Flinders.

From 1801-1803 English navigator and map-maker Matthew Flinders became the first known European to circumnavigate Australia and survey the entire coastline on board his ship Investigator.

From this and previous voyages Flinders created the first complete chart of the continent which contained the first known use of the name ‘Australia’.

This famous chart, which bore the words ‘I call the whole island Australia or Terra Australis’, was completed while Flinders was a prisoner in French Mauritius in 1804.

The symposium marks 200 years since his return to England from Mauritius. Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of NSW, will introduce the symposium.

She will be followed by map collector Emeritus Professor Robert Clancy AM who will focus on Matthew Flinders the mapmaker and his key achievements in cartography.

Flinders was a keen letter writer who took as much care crafting his letters as he did in creating his charts. Paul Brunton, Senior Curator at the State Library of NSW will use these private letters to create a portrait of the man...witty, well read and devoted to his wife and his profession.

Finally historian and author Miriam Estensen will draw on numerous items by people who knew Flinders, including journal entries, letters, sketches, and books, to reveal unusual insights into Matthew Flinders.

Tickets are $40 per person and include afternoon tea and refreshments. Bookings essential, please call (02) 9298 3644 or visit www.anmm.gov.au/membersevents.