Shaping Australia: Explorers

Product Description

At the age of eighteen George Bass was a surgeon's mate in the Royal Navy; at twenty-three he was appointed a naval surgeon. In 1795 he embarked for New South Wales in the frigate HMS Reliance. On board he met Matthew Flinders, with whom he had much in common, particularly a passion for exploration. Flinders joined Britian's Royal Vany at the age of fifteen. Early in his career, in 1791, he sailed with Captain William Bligh on a voyage he was a midshipman in HMS Reliance. Shortly after arriving at Sydney the two set out to explore the southern coastline. In their tiny 2.5 metre-long craft called Tom Thumb they explored Botany Bay and the Georges River. In 1796 they again ventured south, in a larger boat also called Tom Thumb, to Port Hacking and Lake Illawarra.