This two-volume work provides the first edited publication of Matthew Flinders’s fair journals from the circumnavigation of Australia in 1801-1803 in HMS Investigator, and of the ’Memoir’ he wrote to accompany his journals and charts. These are among the most important primary texts in Australian maritime history and European voyaging in the Pacific. Flinders was the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia. He was also largely responsible for giving Australia its name. His voyage was supported by the Admiralty, the Navy Board, the East India Company and the patronage of Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society. Banks ensured that the Investigator expedition included scientific gentlemen to document Australia’s flora, fauna, geology and landscape features. The botanist Robert Brown, botanical painter Ferdinand Bauer, landscape artist William Westall and the gardener Peter Good were all members of the voyage. After landfall at Cape Leeuwin, Flinders sailed anti-clockwise round the whole continent, returning to Port Jackson when the ship became unseaworthy. After a series of misfortunes, including a shipwreck and a long detention at the Ile de France (now Mauritius), Flinders returned to England in 1810. He devoted the last four years of his life to preparing A Voyage to Terra Australis, published in two volumes, and an atlas. Flinders died on 19 July 1814 at the age of forty. The fair journals edited here comprise a daily log with full nautical information and ’remarks’ on the coastal landscape, the achievements of previous navigators in Australian waters, encounters with Aborigines and Macassan trepangers, naval routines, scientific findings, and Flinders’s surveying and charting. The journals also include instructions for the voyage and some additional correspondence. The ’Memoir’ explains Flinders’ methodology in compiling his journals and charts and the purpose and content of his surveys.

Keep Australia on Your Left is a story of friendship forged--and sustained--under demanding circumstances. It is also the personal portrait of Eric Stiller's journey around a continent...and into himself. "You mad bastards. You mad bloody bastards." The challenge? Paddle a kayak around Australia. As Eric Stiller and Tony Brown would discover, the attempt would be a fascinating, frustrating, maddening, and at times hilarious crawl around what many consider the most beautiful but treacherous coastline in the world. Swamped by high waves and rain, hampered by faulty technology, blown off course, baked by a broiling sun or chilled by sub-zero temperatures, battling loneliness and exhaustion--and sometimes each other--it would be the most demanding emotional and physical challenge either had ever attempted. In short, it was the adventure of a lifetime! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This book provides a thoroughly researched biography of the naval career of Matthew Flinders, with particular emphasis on his importance for the maritime discovery of Australia. Sailing in the wake of the 18th-century voyages of exploration by Captain Cook and others, Flinders was the first naval commander to circumnavigate Australia's coastline. He contributed more to the mapping and naming of places in Australia than virtually any other single person. His voyage to Australia on H.M.S. Investigator expanded the scope of imperial, geographical and scientific knowledge. This biography places Flinders's career within the context of Pacific exploration and the early white settlement of Australia. Flinders's connections with other explorers, his use of patronage, the dissemination of his findings, and his posthumous reputation are also discussed in what is an important new scholarly work in the field.

Dutchman Willem Janszoon?s arrival on the shores of Cape York in the Duyfken in 1606 is universally regarded as the first reliably documented non-Aboriginal arrival on Australia?s shores. Yet claims abound that the Portuguese, French, Spanish, Indonesians and, most recently, the Chinese were earlier visitors. Author William A.R. Richardson, Associate Professor at Flinders University, South Australia, examines the evidence for these claims and presents his own case. Much of the Portuguese claim rests on the evidence of a series of sixteenth-century French maps which show a charted landmass?Jave la Grande, south of Indonesia?which some have identified as Australia. Richardson devotes much of his book to considering this issue in detail, in particular the information that place-names can provide in identification. This book is illustrated throughout with charts and maps, some of which are beautifully embellished, showcasing the exquisite art and skill of the mapmakers of the day.

This vivid, multi-dimensional history considers the key cultural, social, political and economic events of Australia's history. Deftly weaving these issues into the wider global context, Mark Peel and Christina Twomey provide an engaging overview of the country's past, from its first Indigenous people, to the great migrations of recent centuries, and to those living within the more anxiously controlled borders of the present day. This engaging textbook is an ideal resource for undergraduate students and postgraduate students taking modules or courses on the History of Australia. It will also appeal to general readers who are interested in obtaining a thorough overview of the entire history of Australia, from the earliest times to the present, in one concise volume.

The record-breaking records annual is back and packed with more incredible accomplishments, stunts, cutting-edge science and amazing sporting achievements than ever before. With more than 3,000 new and updated records and 1,000 eye-popping photos, it has thousands of new stats and facts and dazzling new features. There is so much to explore inside. Go on a whirlwind tour of the planet’s most amazing places, from the largest swamps to the deepest points on Earth. Find out what happens when you give an octopus a Rubik’s Cube, and why all you need to defend yourself from a crocodile is a rubber band! You’ll also find all your favorite records and categories such as Big Stuff, Collections, Mass Participation and Fun with Food, plus the year’s most significant sporting achievements. Our editors have also taken inspiration this year from the world of superheroes – both fictional and real-world – so look out for our feature chapter charting your favorite caped crusaders in comic books, TV shows and movies. We also meet the real-life record-breakers with genuine superpowers, such as the Canadian strongman vicar who can pull a jumbo jet and an actual cyborg who uses technology to augment his senses. You’ll also learn all about the science of superheroes, such as who the fastest and strongest superheroes would be if they came to life, and who would win in a royal rumble between Superman, Batman, Hulk and Dr Strange! Also new this year is a celebration of the superlative with infographic poster pages that explore the most exciting absolutes, such as the longest, tallest, fastest and heaviest. Does the longest sofa outstretch the longest train? Is the tallest Easter egg bigger than the tallest snowman? Find out in this amazing new edition. You’ll also find these special pages available as free poster downloads at guinnessworldrecords.com! From science to showbiz via stunts and sports, there are real-life heroes all around us in all shapes and sizes, achieving the extraordinary every day. There’s only one book where you’ll find so many amazing facts all in one place, and that’s Guinness World Records 2018!

The European maritime explorers who first visited the bays and beaches of Australia brought with them diverse assumptions about the inhabitants of the country, most of them based on sketchy or non-existent knowledge, contemporary theories like the idea of the noble savage, and an automatic belief in the superiority of European civilisation. Mutual misunderstanding was almost universal, whether it resulted in violence or apparently friendly transactions. Written for a general audience, The First Wave brings together a variety of contributions from thought-provoking writers, including both original research and creative work. Our contributors explore the dynamics of these early encounters, from Indigenous cosmological perspectives and European history of ideas, from representations in art and literature to the role of animals, food and fire in mediating first contact encounters, and Indigenous agency in exploration and shipwrecks. The First Wave includes poetry by Yankunytjatjara Aboriginal poet Ali Cobby Eckermann, fiction by Miles Franklin award-winning Noongar author Kim Scott and Danielle Clode, and an account of the arrival of Christian missionaries in the Torres Strait Islands by Torres Strait political leader George Mye.

In this comprehensive study, Kenneth Morgan provides an authoritative account of European exploration and discovery in Australia. The book presents a detailed chronological overview of European interests in the Australian continent, from initial speculations about the 'Great Southern Land' to the major hydrographic expeditions of the 19th century. In particular, he analyses the early crossings of the Dutch in the 17th century, the exploits of English 'buccaneer adventurer' William Dampier, the famous voyages of James Cook and Matthew Flinders, and the little-known French annexation of Australia in 1772. Introducing new findings and drawing on the latest in historiographical research, this book situates developments in navigation, nautical astronomy and cartography within the broader contexts of imperial, colonial, and maritime history.

Mobility was central to imperialism, from the human movements entailed in exploration, travel and migration to the information, communications and commodity flows vital to trade, science, governance and military power. While historians have written on exploration, commerce, imperial transport and communications networks, and the movements of slaves, soldiers and scientists, few have reflected upon the social, cultural, economic and political significance of mobile practices, subjects and infrastructures that underpin imperial networks, or examined the qualities of movement valued by imperial powers and agents at different times. This collection explores the intersection of debates on imperial relations, colonialism and empire with emerging work on mobility. In doing this, it traces how the movements of people, representations and commodities helped to constitute the British empire from the late-eighteenth century through to the Second World War.