The ships of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin at anchor in Encounter Bay, South Australia
British post-colonial maritime exploration
Vancouver Peninsula, King Georges Sound, Albany, Westerrn Australia
George Vancouver - 1791
Ten years before Cook set sail on his first voyage into the Pacific, Britain had defeated the French and Spanish in the Seven Year War, fought over territrorial rights in Canada. Cook visited Nootka Sound, an inlet on the western coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in 1778, and traded for some sea otter pelts. Once his journals were published in 1784, the fur trade took off, much to the displeasure of Spain which believed it had sole trading rights in the area as it was in Spanish territory. This came to a head in 1789 when the Spaniards seized four British trading vessels that were caught trading in the sound. The Spaniards claimed possession of the whole northwestern coast of America on the basis of the papal grant of 1494, and confirmed when their explorers had formally taken possession. Britain, however, contended that rights of sovereignty could be established only by actual occupation of the land, something it had already done by claiming Spanish Australia for Britain in 1770 (Britain had said nothing, hoping Spain wouldn't notice).
The British seized upon Spain's action and talked about going to war over it to force the issue. Because of Spain's military weakness and Prussian diplomatic support on behalf of Great Britain, Spain yielded to the British demands. The Nootka Sound Convention (signed in 1790, amended in 1794) resolved the controversy between the two countries. The convention acknowledged that each nation was free to navigate and fish the Pacific and to trade and establish settlements on unoccupied land. In so doing, it gave the international nod of approval to Britain's right to establish the colony of New South Wales and annexe the continent of Australia as a British colony.
George Vancouver, who was involved in the initial negotiations, was the British envoy sent to Nootka Sound to implement locally the terms of the Agreement with Spain. Once the job was completed, he was immediately dispatched to the South Pacific to carry out further exploration and though not publicly stated, to tie up the loose end relating to the sovereignty of the rest of the Australia. The western slab of the Australian continent still bore Holland's name, it had been claimed by both the Dutch and the French but was in Portugal's half of the world according the Treaty of Saragossa. Under the Nootka Sound Convention, however, it was still up for grabs.
Point Possession (beyond the cargo ship), Princess Royal Harbour, Albany, Westerrn Australia
Sailing aboard Discovery in company with the tender, Chatham, Lt. Vancouver sighted Pt Nuyts on 23 September 1791. Five days later he sailed into what he described as one of the finest harbours in the world, near where the town of Albany is located today. He named it King George III Sound in honour of Britain's reigning monarch. Vancouver spent two weeks in the area during which time he named Bald Head, Breaksea Island, Michaelmas Island, Oyster Harbour, Seal Island. On 29 September 1791, he went ashore at Point Possession and declared 'This port, the first which we had discovered, I honoured with the name of King George the Third's Sound, and this day being the anniversary of Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte Augusta Matilda's birth, the harbour behind Point Possession I called Princess Royal Harbour.' In addition, he claimed the western portion of the Australian continent for King George III. Mission accomplished; the whole of Australia was now British territory.
Point Possession cairn, King Georges Sound, Albany, Westerrn Australia
With his task completed, Vancouver went back to the north-west coast of North America, stopping at New Zealand, Tahiti and then the Hawaiian Islands on the way. Vancouver sighted the coast of California (then known as New Albion) in April 1792. He examined the coast with minute care, surveying all inlets, discovering the Gulf of Georgia, and circumnavigating Vancouver Island (named after him).
HMS Pandora memorial on Pandora Reef. Photo: Jake Parker
Edward Edwards (Pandora)
Edward Edwards, a British Post Captain, was placed in charge of the 24 gun frigate HMS Pandora with the commission to round up the 25 men who had 'pirated' the Bounty and cast adrift her Captain, William Bligh in the infamous mutiny on the Bounty. Numerous sailors from the Bounty gave themselves up on Edwards' arrival in Tahiti. Many had not sided with Bligh or Christian and were forced to remain with the Bounty after the mutiny. Edwards treated them as prisoners and left Tahiti in search of Fletcher Christian on 8th May 1791, with his captives in irons. The captives were placed in a tiny, inhumane prison cell which became known as Pandora's Box.
The search, which took Edwards to Tokelau Islands, the Tongan Islands and Fiji but was unsuccessful, so Edwards headed for the coast of Australia with the intention of charting endeavour Strait on his way home. On 28 august, Pandora was wrecked on a reef. 99 lives were saved and Edwards set sail with them to Kupang in four lifeboats. On his arrival in Kupang, Edwards made arrangements for the return of the prisoners aboard a Dutch ship. They were transferred to a British vessel at the Cape of Good Hope, arriving home in June 1792. Ten of the prisoners were tried and found guilty of mutiny.
The Pandora wreck remained undisturbed until its rediscovery by scuba divers in November 1977. Following an archaeological survey to positively identify the wreck and assess its potential, it was declared a protected historic site in April 1979 and is now being excavated by the Queensland Museum.
Matthew Flinders
Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) was an accomplished navigator and cartographer, having circumnavigated the Australian continent, proved that Tasmania was not joined to the mainland, and played a major part in the naming of Australia. Despite Flinders short life he accomplished some exceptional feats. His charts were of a particularly high standard and though published in 1814, many continued to be republished and used until recent years. Flinders most famous chart was of the Australian continent, published in 1814, which is famously named 'General Chart of Terra Australis or Australia'. Undoubtedly the foremost explorer and hydrographer of the Australian coastline, Matthew Flinders carried out several important and daring voyages of discovery along coastal portions of the land now known as Australia. He was the first to consistently use the term Australia, and it was at his recommendation that it was officially adopted, something that would have guaranteed him a place in history apart from his many other achievements. Additionally he was first to prove that the eastern and western sections of Australia were connected, and his work gave the map of Australia its final shape. Interestingly, Matthew Flinders is believed to have been an accomplished flute player, unusual for a Royal Navy Commander.
Matthew Flinders George Bass
George Bass (1771 - 1803) explored the coast of New South Wales from Botany Bay to Illawarra and to Wilson's Promontory 1797-98. In 1798-99 he circumnavigated Tasmania with Matthew Flinders. Born Aswarby, Lincolnshire, England, 30 January 1771. Possibly died at sea 1803. Apprenticed to a local surgeon-apothecary, and by 1789 was a "surgeon second-rate". Postings in several ships; arrived in Port Jackson on the "Reliance" 1795; explored the George's River with Matthew Flinders 1795 (this led to the establishment of a settlement at Banks Town); explored south of Botany Bay in "Tom Thumb" 1796.George Bass John Murray
John Murray 
Charles Robbins
Drawing of Southern Elephant seals at Sea Elephant Bay, King Island, by French naturalist, Jean-Francois Lesueur. December 1802
On 13 December 1802, Robbins entered Sea Elephant Bay, King Island to find Baudin's ships at anchor off shore near the present site of Naracoopa. Panic struck, Robbins launched a long boat with a party of men and made a dash for the shore, Union Jack in hand so as to beat the Frenchman in claming the island. This was the first occasion the newly-created Union Jack was flown in Australia and Robbins made a shambles of it. After hoisting it in a large gum tree and firing three volleys in salute low over the nearby French tents (Robbins had to borrow the gunpowder for the salute from the French as he had not brought any with him), he made a garbled proclamation of possession, and then realised that in his haste he had raised the flag upside down.
Luckily, the French, who numbered nearly one hundred, compared to the 17 of Robbins and his crew from the Cumberland, treated the incident with ridicule and not with force. Baudin tartly remarked to Robbins that he had 'no intention of annexing a country already inhabited by savages'. The British expedition completed their survey of the island, then headed back to the mainland to complete further exploration of the Port Phillip area before returning to Sydney.
Charles Robbins 
On the rugged Kimberley coast of Western Australia at Careening Bay, Captain Phillip Parker King left his mark there in 1820 while repairing his damaged ship. Engraved in the silver-grey bark of a giant boab tree behind the beach is "HMC MERMAID 1820". King, one of Australia's greatest surveyors, spent several years exploring the Kimberley Coast, braving unpredictable tides. Alan Cunningham, the botanist on board, planted orange and lemon seeds wherever he landed, including Careening Bay. They did not survive.
Phillip Parker King
Phillip Parker King was the son of Governor Phillip Gidley King. A naval officer whose principal scientific work was hydrographic surveys of the Australian coast, he continued the work of Mathew Flinders. King was the first and for years the only Australian-born to attain eminence in the world outside the Australian colonies. Born: 13th December 1791 Norfolk Island, Australia. Died: 26th February 1856.
There is no record of King's early surveying experience but according to family tradition Matthew Flinders, a friend of the family, interested him in surveying and introduced him to Captain Thomas Hurd (1757-1823), hydrographer to the Admiralty 1808-23, who gave him careful training. In 1817 the British government decided that 'circumstances consequent upon the restoration of Peace & rendered it most important to explore, with as little delay as possible, that part of the coast of New Holland & not surveyed or examined by the late Captain Flinders', and appointed Lieutenant King to do this. Before he departed King married Harriet, daughter of Christopher Lethbridge, of Launceston, Cornwall. He arrived at Port Jackson in September 1817 in the Dick with instructions from the Colonial Office to Governor Lachlan Macquarie that he was to be provided with the most suitable vessel and a carefully chosen crew.
In 1817 he was given command of the Mermaid to explore the north-west coast of Australia. He surveyed the coast towards Arnhem Land. Three other voyages followed over the period 1818-22. He named Port Essington and charted more of the coastline. During his four voyages off the northern and north-western coasts, King named Port Essington and Buccaneer's Archipelago (after Dampier), proved the insularity of Melville Island and charted the coastline. He also surveyed the west coast from Rottenest Island to Cygnet Bay (in King Sound) and the entrance to Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania.
King's fourth and final survey in northern Australia was in the Bathurst, 170 tons, which carried a complement of thirty-three, not counting a girl who had stowed away for love of the bos'n; in place of Bungaree King took another Aboriginal, Bundell. After Phillip finished his mapping, he and his family went back to England in 1823. King was now recognized as one of Britain's leading hydrographers and in February 1824 was made a fellow of the Royal Society. In London in 1826 he published his two-volume Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia. Performed Between the Years 1818-1822, partly illustrated by his own sketches. In May 1826 he sailed in command of H.M.S. Adventure, with H.M.S. Beagle in company, to chart the coasts of Peru, Chile and Patagonia. He returned to Sydney in 1832.
John Lort Stokes
John Lort Stokes (1812-1885), explorer and hydrographer, was the son of Henry Stokes. He entered the navy in the Prince Regent in 1824 and was soon transferred to the brig Beagle, in which he served for eighteen years, becoming midshipman in 1825, mate and assistant surveyor in 1831, lieutenant in 1837 and commander in 1841.
Between 1837 and 1845, Stokes and Captains John Wickham surveyed the coasts of Australia in the Beagle, completing the geographical knowledge of the shores of the continent. During a survey of the Timor Sea in 1839 Stokes was several times entrusted with the closer examination of what is now the Northern Territory coast. In March 1841 succeeded Wickham in command of HMS Beagle. Between June and August of that year he surveyed part of the Gulf of Carpentaria, indulging whenever possible 'the exquisite enjoyment of discovery' by making excursions inland. He named the Flinders and Albert Rivers, and between them the Plains of Promise, whose pleasing appearance prompted him to foretell the spread of 'many christian hamlets' throughout the area.