Matthew Flinders
The Man Behind the Map
A site to bring together publications and presentations on
Captain Matthew Flinders, R.N.
by Associate Professor Gillian Dooley, Flinders University, South Australia.
Miniature portrait of Matthew Flinders, c.1800, by an unknown artist. Held in the State Library of NSW.
Matthew Flinders: The Man Behind the Map by Gillian Dooley (Wakefield Press, 2022)
Born at the end of the Age of Enlightenment and growing up as Romanticism took hold of European culture, Matthew Flinders was the embodiment of these seemingly irreconcilable movements. His achievements as a navigator and leader are impressive, but he was much more than an action hero, idolised by generations of admirers.
In Matthew Flinders: The Man behind the Map Gillian Dooley looks to the primary sources to discover Flinders as a friend; a son, a brother, a father and a husband; as a writer, a researcher, a reader, and a musician - and above all as a romantic scientist.
Matthew Flinders, Private Journal 1803-1814 edited by Anthony J. Brown and Gillian Dooley (Friends of the State Library of SA, 2005)
The Journal begins on the first day of Flinders' detention at Ile de France (Mauritius) in December 1803 and continues after his return to England in 1810. The final entry, dated 10 July 1814, was written nine days before his death in London. Its only previous publication was as a limited edition facsimile of the hand-written original held by the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.
The Journal presents a fascinating portrait of Flinders the private man, viewed first through the prism of Flinders the prisoner, unjustly detained for more than six years by Captain General Decaen, and later of Flinders the family man, cartographer and writer, struggling against debilitating illness to complete his life's work before his tragic death at age 40. It is essential reading for all those interested in the 'Great Denominator' who put 'Australia' on the map and named many hundreds of its geographical features.
Gillian Dooley is an Honorary Associate Professor in English Literature at Flinders University, South Australia, having retired from the university library where she had worked for 27 years, including 17 years as Special Collections Librarian 1999-2015. She graduated from Flinders with a PhD in English in 2001, and was the founding editor of the Flinders Humanities Research Centre's electronic journals Transnational Literature (2008-2018) and Writers in Conversation (2014-2020).
She has published several books, including scholarly editions, and more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. She was the co-editor of Matthew Flinders' Private Journal published by the Friends of the State Library of SA in 2005, and her recent books include Matthew Flinders: The Man Behind the Map (Wakefield Press, 2022). She often presents lectures and informal talks on many different aspects of the life and times of Matthew Flinders.
Her other research interests include authors Jane Austen, Iris Murdoch, V.S. Naipaul and J.M. Coetzee.