An Historical Myth? Matthew Flinders and the Quest for a Strait

Abstract

This article takes issue with a recent argument, made by the late Rupert Gerritsen, that Matthew Flinders deliberately concocted a myth about a north-south strait dividing Australia in order to gain the attention and patronage of Sir Joseph Banks to support the first circumnavigation of Terra Australis in HMS Investigator in 1801-3. The paper argues that Flinders did not create a myth but based his arguments on contemporary views that such a dividing strait might exist, backed up with cartographic evidence. Flinders’ achievements in connection with the circumnavigation, it is further argued, reflected the analytical mind that led him to search for a strait