From 1802 - 1803, Matthew Flinders circumnavigated the continent in a leaky and rotting vessel, 'Investigator', producing a map of remarkable accuracy on which for the first time the word ‘Australia’ was provocatively inscribed.

Flinders proved there was one landmass: the east, New South Wales, was joined to the west, New Holland. He had already proven that Tasmania was separated from the mainland by a navigable strait. Matthew Flinders gave Australians their geographic identity, a necessary precursor to political federation a century later.

Flinders’ handwritten logbooks and journals provide the earliest observations of parts of the Australian coast, the flora and fauna, as well as recording his contact with indigenous Australians.

The story of Flinders’ intrepid cat ‘Trim', of whom he wrote so fondly, adds another dimension to our understanding of a unique man, Matthew Flinders.