1802 Matthew Flinders Map of Port Phillip

In 1802, Matthew Flinders was charting the southern coastline of Australia, when he entered an immense bay, which we now know as Port Phillip Bay.

Just 10 weeks earlier, acting Lieutenant John Murray commanding HMS Lady Nelson entered the Bay on the 14th February 1802 and named it Port King in honour of the Governor of New South Wales at the time, Philip Gidley King. On 4 September 1805, King formally renamed it Port Phillip, in honour of his predecessor Arthur Phillip.

Flinders surveyed the Bay and surrounding areas, and later incorporated parts of a more detailed survey carried out a year later by Charles Grimes.

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