Use this map to explore the notes and illustrations Flinders' artists & scientists made on their voyage.

Tap any of the locations to see how the explorers documented each landing.

See
Australia
See the
world
Who was
Matthew Flinders? Tap to select a
different voyage
  • Before May 1803
  • After May 1803

Sweers Island and Wellesley Islands7 November 1802 - 8 December 1802

The Investigator leaks more than 10 inches per hour. They head for the Wellesley Islands to disembark while the vessel is being caulked. On Sweers Island they find evidence of a shipwreck and Flinders carves 'HMAS Investigator' into a tree. An official report from the carpenters indicates the ship is rotten in multiple places and unfit for bad weather. Flinders decides to press on examining the Gulf of Carpentaria before returning to Port Jackson via the west.

Flinders

  • Silver-leaved box—Eucalyptus Pruinosa
    Artist Ferdinand L Bauer
    Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London—Australian Botanical Drawings 56, 3195

  • Red-winged parrot—Aprosmictus erythropterus
    Artist Ferdinand L Bauer
    Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London—993679902081_024, Plate 22

  • Bitter bark— Petalostigma pubescens
    Artist Ferdinand L Bauer
    Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London—Australian Botanical Drawings 152, 6959

  • Drawing of the 'Investigator' tree on Sweers Island, 1857
    State Library of Queensland—108502