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Matthew Flinders & George Bass Print Page Print this page

Bass + Flinders Memorial 2
Bass + Flinders Memorial 2

Photographs supplied by Peter F Williams

The memorial commemorates explorers George Bass, Matthew Flinders and the boy William Martin who was matthew Flinders servant. Matthew Flinders and George Bass explored and mapped the coastline and Port Hacking estuary in 1796 and the southernmost point of Cronulla is named Bass and Flinders Point in their honour. The memorial was erected by Mr. Frank Cridland C.B.E. at his own expense. 

Matthew Flinders undertook his first voyage of discovery with George Bass, with whom he had struck up a friendship on the way to Australia on the Reliance in 1795. At this time Bass was 24 and Flinders 21. They sailed out of Sydney Heads in the Tom Thumb, a boat of (keel) length 2.5 metres,  only one month after their arrival in Sydney.

Along with Bass' general assistant (or servant), the boy William Martin, they reached Botany Bay and managed to travel 32 kilometres further upstream along the Georges River than any previous explorer . Martin also travelled with Bass and Flinders on the second Tom Thumb expedition to Lake Illawarra, and seems to have been a competent sailor. He is the youngest explorer of Australia's early colonial history.

Location

Address:Gowrie Street & The Esplanade, Bass & Flinders Point, Cronulla , 2230
State:NSW
Area:AUS
GPS Coordinates:Lat: -34.072904
Long: 151.153506
Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate.
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Details

Monument Type:Monument
Monument Theme:People
Sub-Theme:Exploration
Actual Event Start Date:30-March-1796
Actual Event End Date:30-March-1796

Dedication

Approx. Monument Dedication Date:1949 restored 1998
Front Inscription

            Memorial To 
    MATTHEW FLINDERS 
     GEORGE BASS 
         And The 
         "Boy Martin"
       Who Sailed Past
      This Headland In 
      "Tom Thumb" II
On March 30th, 1796
              And
 Discovered And Named 
      Port Hacking

 

Inscription in Proximity
BASS & FLINDERS POINT
Source: H,MA, ADB
Monument details supplied by Monument Australia - www.monumentaustralia.org.au