Mitch Matters: grave of explorer Matthew Flinders, first man to climb Arthurs Seat, found under London railway
There’s a curious link between the highest point on the Mornington Peninsula and a remarkable recent discovery beneath a railway station in London.
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THERE’S a curious link between the highest point on the Mornington Peninsula and a remarkable recent discovery beneath a railway station in London.
Underneath a giant tin shed covering an archaeological dig at Euston Station for England’s High Speed 2 rail project, workers discovered the coffin of the first European to climb Arthur’s Seat, 217 years ago.
There can be no doubt that Captain Matthew Flinders was one of the world’s greatest explorers. He made three voyages to the Southern Ocean between 1791 and 1810.
A leading English navigator and cartographer, he proved that Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) was an island, and was the first to circumnavigate Australia and identify it as a continent.
In April 1802, while his ship was moored off what was later to become Schnapper Point (and then Mornington), Flinders and his hiking party made their way to the highest vantage point.
He knew that only a few months earlier, Acting Lieutenant John Murray had given Arthur’s Seat its name, because of its resemblance to a hill of the same name in his home city of Edinburgh.
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But Murray didn’t get out of his boat.
It was Flinders and his men who trekked more than 20km to the summit and back, which must have presented an enormous physical challenge after months at sea.
The explorer gazed out across what was to become known as Port Phillip Bay and noted in his journal, “It was almost incredible that such a vast piece of water should not have a larger outlet than that through which we had come.”
And yet he was hardly hacking through dense bushland to get to the top.
The local indigenous community, the Boonwurrung, had been living in the area for tens of thousands of years.
“There were many marks of natives,” wrote Flinders, “such as deserted fire places and heaps of oyster shells; and upon the Peninsula which forms the south side of the port, a smoke was rising, but we did not see any of the people.”
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There’s no doubt Flinders eventually succeeded in communicating with the locals.
When he circumnavigated the continent, he was accompanied by an indigenous man, Bungaree.
Heading home for England in 1803, Flinders’ vessel needed urgent repairs in Mauritius. Although Britain and France were at war, he thought the scientific nature of his work would permit him safe passage. A suspicious governor kept him under arrest for six years.
He finally made it home in 1810, but his health had deteriorated badly. He did not live to see the success of his widely praised journal and atlas, A Voyage to Terra Australis.
Captain Flinders died in 1814 but the location of his grave was lost by the mid-19th century. His headstone was removed from St James’s Burial Ground during the expansion of Euston Station.
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His remains were only discovered last month, due to a distinctive lead plate on top of his coffin.
While he never named anything in his honour, the Captain’s intrepid spirit is remembered everywhere.
Among numerous tributes, including a street, a pub, a school, a statue and an island, there’s a town on the Mornington Peninsula, a monument at Mornington and of course, a famous cairn at Arthur’s Seat, all named after Matthew Flinders.
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