How Capt. Flinders Named Points of Interest

Port Lincoln Times (SA : 1927 - 1954), Friday 21 December 1934, page 3

These are the points of interest noted by Capt. Matthew Flinders in his survey of the coast of Eyre Peninsula, and the persons or places commemorated in the names bestowed by the navigator : —

January 27, 1802 — Head of Great Australian Bight ;

January 28 — Nuyts Reef (Pieter Nuyts), Cape Nuyts (Pieter Nuyts), Point Fowler (1st. Lieutenant of ship), Fowler's Bay (Fowler, 1st. Lieutenant of ship Investigator) ;

January 31 — Point Bell (surgeon of Investigator) ;

February 7 — Nuyts' Archipelago (Pieter Nuyts)

January 31 — Sinclair's Rocks (Midshipman on Investigator) ;

February 1 — Purdie's Isles (assistant surgeon on Investigator) ;

February 7 — Lound's Isles (A group of nine. Midshipman on Investigator);

February 3 — Isles of St. Francis (English form of St. Francois), Lacy's Isle (Midshipman on Investigator), Evan's Isle (Midshipman, and, after Thistle's death, acting master on Investigator), Franklin's Isles (Midshipman on Investigator), Isle of St. Francis (English form of St. Francois),

February 7 [sic] — Isles of St. Peter, 2 (English form of St. Pieter) ; Point Peter and Denial Bay (allusion to St. Peter and deceptive hope of penetrating into the interior) ;

February 5 — Point Brown (Brown, the naturalist), Cape Bauer (Bauer, the painter of natural history and Mrs. Matthew Flinders's favorite), Olive's Island (Olive, the ship's clerk), Streaky Bay (water discolored in streaks), Point Westall (Westall, the landscape painter) ;

February 6 — Smoky Bay (number of "smokes" rising from the shore) ;

February 9 — Cape Radstock (Admiral Lord Radstock) ;

February 10 — A large lagoon seen from masthead subsequently called Venus Bay, Waldegrave Isles, Top Gallant Isles ;

February 13 — Pearson's Isles (a cluster of small islands — Pearson was Flinders's brother-in-law), Ward's Isles, 2 (Flinders's mother's maiden name), Flinders' Island (S. W. Flinders, the 2nd. Lieutenant and Matthew Flinders's brother), Investigator's Group (doubtless after the ship) ;

February 15 — Point Drummond (Capt. Adam Drummond, of the Navy) ;

February 16 — Point Sir Isaac and Coffin's Bay (Vice-Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Bart., who took a zealous part in the outfitting of Investigator), Mount Greenly (Sir Isaac Coffin's fiancee), Greenly Isles (Sir Isaac Coffin's fiancee, probably 2);

February 27 — Bluff seen from North Side Hill (probably Marble Range) ;

February 17 — Point Whidbey and Whidbey's Isles, (worthy friend and former master, attendant at Sheerness), Avoid Bay and Point Avoid (breakers and exposed to the dangerous southern wind) ;

February 18 — Liguanea Island (an estate in Jamaica) ;

February 19 — Cape Wiles (a worthy friend at Linguanea in Jamaica) ;

February 20— Isle Williams, Sleaford Bay (Sleaford, a town in Lincolnshire) ;

February 21 — Thistle's Island (Master who accompanied Flinders. He was drowned near Memory Cove on February 21, 1802), Sibsey Island (town in Lincolnshire and the former home of the Franklin family), Stickney Island (town in Lincolnshire), Spilsby Island (town in Lincolnshire, and where Franklin lived), Neptune's Isles (cluster of low islands and some rocks; "seemed unaccessible to men"), Thorny Passage (contracted passage with several small islands and rippling tides), boating fatality at dusk on the evening of February 21, 1802 ;

February 22 — Cape Catastrophe (on account of boating fatality) ;

February 23 — Taylor's Isles (group of six small inlands ; Taylor, a young man who was lost in the accident) ;

February 24 — Smith's Island, Isle Lewis, Hopkin's Isle, Isle Little and Grindal's Isle (apparently seamen who were lost in the boating accident. They are shown only on the chart). Wedge Island (from its shape, forms part of Gambier Isles), Gambier Isles (group of probably 6 islands, including Wedge Island. In honor of the worthy Admiral, later, Lord Gambier), Memory Cove (inscription on sheet, of copper erected, in memory), Shag Cove (on chart only);

February 25— Cape Donington (town of Flinders's birth in Lincolnshire), Boston Island, Bicker Isles (2), Surfleet Point, Stamford Hill (towns in Lincolnshire) ;

February 26 — Spalding Cove, Grantham Island, Kirton Point, Boston Bay, Point Boston, Point Bolingbroke, Louth Bay, Louth Isles, 2 (towns in Lincolnshire), Sir Joseph Banks's Group (Right Honorable, president of the Royal Society), Port Lincoln ("My native province," says Flinders), Sle-ford Mere (town in Lincolnshire) ;

from February 26 to March 3 — North Side Hill (a hill on the north side and a principal station in the survey of Port Lincoln) ;

March 6 — Kirkby Island (place in Lincolnshire);

March 7 — Reevesby Island (Reevesby Manor, Banks's Lincolnshire seat) ; I. Langton (town in Lincolnshire), Hareby I. (place in Lincolnshire), Dalby I. (Rev. M. Tyler's parish), Lusby I. (town in Lincolnshire), Partney I. (where Miss Chapple, his wife, had lived and where Flinders was married), Marum I. (residence of Mr. Stephenson, Sir Joseph Banks's agent), Winceby (place in Lincolnshire), Tumby I. (town in Lincolnshire), Bluff Inland Mountain (afterwards called Mount Hill) ;

March 8 — Lagoon visible from masthead (afterwards called Franklin Harbor and Lake Flinders by Governor Gawler), Elbow Hill (the corner hill, direction of ridge changes), Mount Young (in honor of the Admiralty), Middle Mount ;

March 9 — Point Lowly (low sandy land), Curlew Point (on chart only) ; March 10 — Broad flat top hill, Mount Arden ;

March 11 — Head of Gulf ;

March 14 — Middle-back Mount ;

March 20 — Spencer's Gulf (Earl Spencer, presided at the Board of Admiralty when voyage was planned).

Having in front of us a complete list of places discovered and named by Flinders, we are in a position to follow him down the coast, picking out the most interesting observations he made on the journey. Capt. Flinders arrived at the present boundary, 129 degrees East longitude on January 26, 1802. (The western boundary was originally placed at 132 degrees, but in 1861 the three degrees of "no man's land" — actually a portion of New South Wales — was attached to South Australia, making the new boundary 129 degrees.)

The cliffs lining the shore continued from the Western Australian side of the border to the head of the Great Australian Bight. These cliffs ranged up to about 600 ft. high, and were thought to have been capped with a coral reef. Flinders regretted afterwards that he did not land to ascertain what was behind this bank. It may have been a barrier between an interior and exterior sea, or behind it may have been a flat sandy plain.

On January 27 Flinders passed the place where D'Entrecasteaux was compelled to abandon his explorations, a little west of Nuyts reef. The next day he arrived at the extremity of Nuyts's explorations, and called the cape on the mainland Cape Nuyts. For the latter part of the voyage "the Dutch chart of 1627 was the sole authority ; and making allowance for the state of navigation at that time, it was correct in form as could reasonably have been expected."

Nuyts's mapping of the islands went further than that of the land. Of the chart of D'Entrecasteaux Flinders said : "They must be allowed to do him great credit. Perhaps no chart of a coast as little known as his was, will bear a comparison with its original better than those of Mon Beaupre (geographical engineer on board La Recherche).

Flinders could not find any water or fuel at Fowler's Bay, and the botanical party found very little to reward them for their exertions, but of the port, Flinders said : "it may be useful to a ship in want of a place to shelter."