More on Matthew

Join us at our monthly meeting today (2pm at Redcliffe Library Meeting Room) as we welcome our internationally renowned guest speaker, historian and author, Professor Marc Serge Rivière.

He will be showcasing his latest publication, True Friendship Knows No Bounds: Extensive Correspondence of Matthew Flinders and Thomi Pitot (1804-1814). An extensive selection of 65 letters, from various provenance, exchanged by Flinders and Pitot over ten years, is presented in this precious annotated edition, to explore the strong bond of friendship, mutual admiration and reverence. Moreover, the regular and lengthy exchange of letters sheds considerable light on the socio-economic and cultural life, the commercial and maritime activities, military on-goings on Isle de France in the last decade of French occupation (1804-1810), including the Battle of Grand Port (August 1810) and the island’s capitulation (December 1810) and the early years of British colonisation.

Serge Rivière has published 38 books and over 70 international articles in refereed Journals and chapters in books on: Voltaire and the 18th century; French and Francophone Literature; the History of Australia, Ireland, Europe and Mauritius; Cultural Studies, and the biographies of great men and women.

Remembering Matthew Flinders

On 16th July, 1799, Matthew Flinders became the first European to enter Moreton Bay. He noted and named Red Cliff Point and landed in on this day (17th July) at Woody Point…225 years ago today.

He’s currently back in the news at the moment as his body has just recently been relocated and reinterred at his birthplace in Donington, Lincolnshire, England. He died in 1814, one day after his work A Voyage to Terra Australis had been published. The location of his body was lost in 1852 but was rediscovered in 2019.

History Redcliffe’s guest speaker next month (2nd August) will be renowned historian and author, Professor Marc Serge Rivière. He will be speaking about his latest book True friendship knows no bounds: exclusive correspondence of Matthew Flinders and Thomi Pitot (1804-1814) which explores more about the life of Matthew Flinders.

Read more about Matthew Flinders in our latest feature story. (Click here)

On this day…224 years ago

Image courtesy Ian Harding, 2004

Matthew Flinders, the first English explorer to enter Moreton Bay, arrived on the morning of 16th July 1799 and after landing on the southern end of Bribie Island, he sailed southwards and anchored several miles off the Peninsula before landing at Woody Point on 17th July…that’s 224 years ago to this day!

See Flinders chart on the monument in the front garden at the Redcliffe Museum.