Sketch of Encounter Bay showing Granite Island and Seal Island with soundings and notes on hazards. Also site of whaling establishment, Hindmarsh and Kangaroo River and indication of higher ground. Relief shown by hachures and pictorially, depth shown by soundings.

Drawn under the direction of Commander F. Harding, HMS Pelorus.

More of the west coast of Australia was gradually charted by the Dutch over many years and by William Dampier an English navigator, all in the 17th^h century. The southern part of Tasmania was charted by Abel Tasman from 1642-43 and the northern part of Australia in 1644, again by Tasman. England's Captain James Cook charted the eastern coast of Australia in 1770. Several expeditions were sent out by the English and French Governments in the 18th century but did not add anything further to the unknown southern coast.

At the beginning of the 19th century two expeditions sailed. One was from France and the other from England. Both had instructions to discover the unknown coastline. These expeditions were led by Nicolas Baudin and Matthew Flinders and their discoveries account for the appearance of both French and English names on the South Australian coast. The full story of their voyages can be seen on the Encounter 2002 website.

Meanwhile Lieutenant James Grant had been sent out from England in the Lady Nelson, a specially designed vessel with sliding keels, for work in shallow coastal waters. On 3 December 1800 he approached the South Australian coast and named two capes, Northumberland and Banks. Further inland were two mountains which he named Mount Schank, after the designer of his ship, and Mount Gambier, after Admiral Lord Gambier. Lieutenant Grant had discovered the first stretch of South Australian coast since Pieter Nuyts more than 170 years before.

Flinders was the first European to survey this stretch of coast from the head of the Great Australian Bight to Encounter Bay. The chart covers the area explored by Flinders between 27 January and 8 April 1802, including the site of the 1802 encounter between Flinders and Baudin. Inset charts of Nuyts Archipelago, Port Lincoln and the head of Spencer Gulf are included. (Flinders named the Islands of Saint Peter and Saint Francis the Nuyts Archipelago in honour of their first discoverer Pieter Nuyts and Francois Thyssen, 1627.) The chart includes soundings and notes on currents, coastal vegetation and terrain.

Forsyth, C. C.

Harding, F.

Pelorus (ship)

Cooper, H. M. 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] (printed by MacDougalls Pty Ltd)

Baudin, Nicolas, The journal of post Captain Nicolas Baudin, Commander-in-Chief of the corvettes Geographe and Naturaliste, ... Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1974

Flinders, Matthew, A voyage to Terra Australis ... Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1966

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)

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

Estensen, Miriam The life of Matthew Flinders Crows Nest, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2002

SA Memory Taking it to the edge

SA Memory, Foundation of South Australia 1800-1851 Flinders names Encounter Bay

Encounter 1802-2002

Matthew Flinders Collection