Facsimile of Plate no. 2 - Peron, Francois. 'Voyage de decouvertes aux terres: atlas historique, Part 2' ; Paris : De L'Imprimerie Imperiale, 1811 from the 1808 chart of the coast of southern Australia from Fowlers Bay, South Australia to Westernport, Victoria showing Nicolas Baudin's discoveries in the "Geographe", Casuarina" and "Naturaliste", with French place names.

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In April 1802 Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin met at Encounter Bay. Both men had been sent out by their respective governments to chart and explore the unknown southern coast of Australia. Between them Flinders and Baudin explored, mapped and named most of the 3,700 kilometres of coastline from Ceduna in the west to Robe in the southeast, known in 1802 as 'the unknown coast'.

A map was produced by the English expedition, led by Matthew Flinders, aboard the Investigator. Another map - Carte generale de la Terre Napoleon (a la Nouvelle Hollande - was drawn by Louis Freycinet, the cartographer-surveyor on the French expedition.

Freycinet's chart of the French discoveries in South Australian waters was published in 1811, as part of Francois Peron's publication on Baudin's voyage. It was the first published map to show the entire South Australian coastline. The chart includes the area of the 1802 encounter between Baudin and Flinders at Encounter Bay, South Australia, and also shows part of the western coast of Victoria. The longitudes used for the chart are on the meridian of Paris rather than the Greenwich meridian. The map is enhanced by vignettes of Australian flora and fauna drawn by Charles Alexandre Lesueur.

The 1811 chart does not acknowledge Matthew Flinders' prior discoveries. In 1824 a second edition of the account of the Baudin expedition was published, edited by Freycinet, and in the Atlas Matthew Flinders' place names were restored to the coast he had first discovered.

Baudin, Nicolas, 1754-1803

Peron, Francois, 1775-1810

Freycinet, Louis de, 1779-1842

Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814

Baudin, Nicolas. The Journal of Post-Captain Nicolas Baudin, Commander-in-chief of the courvettes Geographe and Naturaliste - assigned by order of the government to a voyage of discovery, translated from the French and with a preface by Christine Cornell, Adelaide: Friends of the State Library of South Australia, 2004

Cooper, HM. French exploration in South Australia: with special reference to Encounter Bay, Kangaroo Island, the two gulfs and Murat Bay 1802-1803, Adelaide: the author, 1952

Cornell, Christine. Questions relating to Nicolas Baudin's Australian expedition, 1800-1804, Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1965

State Library of South Australia, General Information Factsheets Online, Mapping sources for SA history

Atlas of South Australia: Charting the gulfs

Encounter 1802-2002 (State Library of South Australia)

The Navigators (ABC.net)