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Australia must have a great river
Title : Australia must have a great river Australia must have a great river
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Creator : Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814
Source : Voyage to Terra Australis..., p. lxxiii
Place Of Creation : London
Publisher : G. and W. Nicol
Date of creation : 1814
Format : Book
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Description :

In the Introduction to his Voyage to Terra Australis …(1814), Matthew Flinders summarises all the expeditions on the Australian coast before his expedition of 1801-03. Towards the end of this lengthy section he gives some of the reasons for leading a new expedition to the continent. Flinders refers to the possibility of finding a major river, as none had been found to the time he was writing. He also alludes to the possibility of an inland sea in the interior. Sir Joseph Banks had written in 1798 that Australia was such a size that it was impossible that it did not have a large navigable river.

Charles Sturt would discover Australia's major river system, the Murray/Darling, in 1828-30. Matthew Flinders however missed the mouth of the Murray River in Encounter Bay when he was there in April 1802, and also missed the mouths of most of the rivers on his circumnavigation of Australia, 1801-03.

Flinders further alludes to the possibility of an inland sea: this theory, in part arisen because of the westward flowing rivers of New South Wales, and because of the size of the continent would puzzle and tease explorers, in particular Charles Sturt for many decades to come.

Subjects
Related names :

Flinders, Matthew, 1774-1814

Coverage year : 1801
Place : Australia
Further reading :
Flinders, Matthew, A voyage to Terra Australis ... Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1966
Terra Australis to Australia edited by Glyndwr Williams and Alan Frost Melbourne: Oxford University Press in association with the Australian Academy of the Humanities, 1988
Schilder, Gunter Australia unveiled: the share of the Dutch navigators in the discovery of Australia Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1976
Internet links :
Exhibitions and events :

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing. Taking it to the edge August 2004-


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