As the first person to circumnavigate Australia and the explorer who popularised its name, Flinders has long been a figure of national importance. But in Britain, he’s been largely forgotten.
As the first person to circumnavigate Australia and the explorer who popularised its name, Flinders has long been a figure of national importance. There is no major city that does not, in some way, bear his name.
Pearson – who was born and bred in Donington and retired from a career in insurance, only to become busier running several community groups in the village – points in the general direction of several graves inside the churchyard. Flinders’ father Matthew Snr, the village surgeon, was buried in the church grounds as were his brother, Samuel, his grandfather John and various aunties.
‘Over the years, we have met so many Australians who have come to Donington … you could say Matthew Flinders has changed my life.’When he sought assistance in Mauritius, unaware that the war with France had restarted, he was detained by its French governor and not released for six years. He wrote a book of his discoveries,, which cemented the name Australia in the public imagination, but died from a long illness the day after it was published in July 1814.
, where Flinders was so impressed with Bungaree’s intuition and bravery that the following year he took him on a coastal survey voyage.