Flinders was involved in several voyages of discovery between 1791 and 1803, the most famous of which are the circumnavigation of Australia and an earlier expedition when he and George Bass confirmed that Van Diemen's Land was an island.
Matthew Flinders, English navigator who charted much of the Australian coast. In 1795 he sailed to Australia, where he explored and charted its southeast coast and circumnavigated the island of Tasmania.