Born Mar. 16, 1774, in Donington, Lincolnshire; died July 19, 1814, in London. English explorer of Australia.

In 1797–98, Flinders circumnavigated Tasmania with G. Bass on the Norfolk, establishing that it was an island. From 1801 to 1803, on the Investigator, he explored and mapped the southern coast of Australia and discovered Spencer Gulf, the Gulf of Saint Vincent, Yorke Peninsula, and some coastal islands, including Kangaroo Island, which had been discovered somewhat earlier by a French expedition under N. Baudin. In 1802, Flinders explored the eastern and northern coasts of Australia; he plotted the Great Barrier Reef and made a survey of the Gulf of Carpentaria. In 1814 he proposed that the continent be called Australia instead of New Holland.

A number of geographical features have been named after Flinders, including an island off Tasmania; a bay in the Indian Ocean; a passage and reefs in the Great Barrier Reef; and, in Australia, a mountain range, a river, a city, a bay, and the settlement of Flinders Bay, in the southwest.