Matthew Flinders

In the cold eternal bronze of statuary, he watches over the continent he named, the young explorer, figurehead of youth, once human, now immortal.

Every school-child knows his history, for he is history, sketching the first outline of the great south land.

But few know the story of a lifelong love that is one of the world's great tragedies; of a life's unending labour for discovery; of the persecutions of a cruel fate that gave all only to take away, and sent a broken cripple to an unknown grave, and crowned the ruin with undying fame when a century had gone.

Ernestine Hill.

from "My Love Must Wait"

Ernestine Hill's poem saluting Matthew Flinders was published in her historical novel "My Love Must Wait". It refers to his tragic marriage to Ann Chappell, his child-hood sweetheart. The Admiralty prevented Ann from accompanying him to Australia, immediately after their marriage, then, four years later, when returning to England, Flinders was interned by the French on Mauritius for six long years. He was a very ill man when released, was poorly treated by the authorities on his return to England in 1810. Together at last, Matthew Flinders and his beloved Ann lived in near-poverty, until he died on July 19, 1814, aged forty years.

This page is maintained by

The Rivermouth Action Group Inc

E-mail: activist@rag.org.au

as a community service.