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Flinders names restored
Title : Flinders names restored Flinders names restored
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Creator : Freycinet, Louis de, 1779-1842
Source : Freycinet, Louis de, 1779-1842. Voyage de d{226}ecouvertes aux terres australes: fait par ordre du governement, sur les corvettes le G{226}eographe, le Naturaliste, et la go{232}elette le Casuarina, pendant les ann{226}ees 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, et 1804 : historique / r{226}edig{226}e par P{226}eron et continu{226}e par Louis de Freycinet
Place Of Creation : Paris
Publisher : Arthus Bertrand
Date of creation : 1824
Additional Creator : Freycinet, Louis de, 1779-1842 Lesueur, Charles Alexandre, 1778-1846 Tardieu, P.A.F. P{226}eron, Fran{240}cois, 1775-1810.
Format : Book
Catalogue record
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Description :

In 1800 the French government sent an expedition under Nicolas Baudin to complete the survey of the Australian coast, in particular the unknown southern coast. With their complex instructions and many other tasks unrelated to the exploration of this section of the coast, Baudin's expedition did not reach the unknown coast until early 1802 approaching from Tasmania and Bass Strait. On 9 April the French ships met Matthew Flinders at Encounter Bay. Flinders had been sent out by the British government to explore the unknown coast but had approached directly from the west and had discovered the peninsulas and gulfs and Kangaroo Island before meeting the French expedition. Misfortune overtook both explorers on their way home. Baudin died on Mauritius and the account of his expedition was written by Francois Peron and Louis de Freycinet who did not mention him by name once throughout the narrative. When their charts were published in 1811 they also usurped Flinders's prior discoveries on the southern coast with every feature receiving a French name. Flinders himself had been detained on Mauritius (England and France were again at war) and was unable to get his charts published until 1814. There was some consternation in England at the manner in which the French expedition seemed to have misappropriated Flinders's discoveries, and finally in 1824 a second edition of the expedition account was published which restored the English names of Flinders's discoveries and also those of James Grant on the south coast in the Lady Nelson in 1800. Golfe Josephine and Golfe Bonaparte were restored to Flinders's names of Gulf St Vincent and Gulf Spencer, and Ile Decres to Kangaroo Island. Some French names remain on those sections of the South Australian coast which they discovered first, notably in the South East of the state and the southern coast of Kangaroo Island. The South Australian section of the continent's coast was the last significant piece of the discovery of Australia's coastline and essentially completed placing Australia on the map, almost 200 years after it began in 1606.


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The 'unknown' southern coastline was familiar to Aboriginal communities which had their own place names. Some of these names now appear on the South Australian map. After the 1802-1803 voyage of exploration, French place names remain on the south-eastern coastline, the south coast of Kangaroo Island, and parts of the West Coast - their discoveries. Baudin had been discredited by both early deserters of the expedition and the returning travellers, and French authorities were embarrassed by the apparent failure of the voyage. Freycinet bestowed his own choice of place names to South Australian locations, disregarding names that Baudin had recorded earlier. The French authorities and Louis de Freycinet restored the names of Flinders' prior discoveries in the second edition of the account of the voyage published in 1824.

Subjects
Related names :

Freycinet, Louis de, 1779-1842

Peron, Francois, 1775-1810

Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814

Coverage year : 1824
Place : Australia
Further reading :

Fornasiero, F. J. Encountering Terra Australis: the Australian voyages of Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders Kent Town, South Australia: Wakefield Press, 2004

Cooper, H. M. The unknown coast: being the explorations of Captain Matthew Flinders, along the shores of South Australia 1802 Adelaide: The author, 1953 (Adelaide: Advertiser Printing Office)

Cooper, H. M. The unknown coast: (a supplement) Adelaide: The author, 1955 (Adelaide: E.J. McAlister)

Brown, Anthony and Cornell, Christine. 'Legacy of the Encounter: British and French place names of the South Australian coast.', South Australian geographical journal, vol. 99, 2000, pp. 10-15.

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