Captain Matthew Flinders RN (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) is a distinguished navigator and cartographer, who is the first to circumnavigate Australia and identify it as a continent.

On his first voyage to New South Wales, he makes friends with the ship's surgeon George Bass, and the two of them presently sail through what becomes the Bass Strait, confirming that Tasmania is an island.

In 1801 he is commissioned to chart the whole coastline of New Holland, and he specially notes the fertile land around Port Phillip, today's Melbourne.

Heading back to England in 1803, his vessel needs urgent repairs at Mauritius.

Although Britain and France are at war, Flinders tihinks the scientific nature of his work will ensure safe passage, but a suspicious governor keeps him under arrest for more than six years.

In captivity, he records details of his voyages for future publication, and puts forward his rationale for naming the new continent 'Australia', as an umbrella-term for New Holland and New South Wales - a suggestion taken up later by Governor Macquarie.

His health has suffered, however, and although he reaches home, he does not live to see the publication of his widely praised book and atlas, A Voyage to Terra Australis.