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68
Matthew Flinders
In late 1801, Matthew Flinders sailed his ship, the Investigator,
eastwards from the south-western tip of Australia. He was the
first person to chart the unknown, southern coastline.
From 1802 to 1803, he sailed around the continent in his leaky,
rotting ship. He made an accurate map of his voyage. It was
the first map with the word ‘Australia’ on it. Flinders proved
Australia was an island—the east, New South Wales, was joined
to the west, New Holland.
Flinders’ journals contain some of the earliest written
descriptions of Australia’s plants and animals, as well as his
contact with Aboriginals.
Thursday 10 December, 1801
As I proposed to make a new survey of Ki
ng George’s
Sound, we landed … upon the small cen
tral island, the
same which captain Vancouver describes as
covered with
luxuriant grass and other vegetables, and wh
ere he planted
vine cuttings, water-cresses, and the seeds of
various fruits.
There were no remains of these valuable gift
s, although
nothing indicated the island to have been
visited since his
time; and, to our disappointment, the vegeta
tion upon
it now consisted of tufts of wiry grass and
a few stunted
shrubs, supported by a thin layer of sandy
soil, which was
everywhere perforated with rat-holes.
Wednesday 30 December, 1801
Our friends the natives continued to visit
us… I ordered
the party of marines on shore to be exercis
ed in their
presence.The red coats and white crossed bel
ts were greatly
admired, having some resemblance to their
own manner of
ornamenting themselves; and the drum, bu
t particularly the
fife, excited their astonishment; but when
they saw these
beautiful red-and-white men, with their bri
ght muskets,
drawn up in a line, they absolutely scream
ed with delight.
69
In the texts
1
a Look at the portrait on page 68. Who do you think this is? ____________________
b What might his job be? Why do you think so?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
c Write keywords below to describe his appearance.
face, eyes, nose, ears,
age, height,
mouth, hair, skin
build
clothes
What type of person
does he look like?
2 Read Matthew Flinders, on page 69, to a partner.
a Is this text in the first person (I, we) or third person (he, she, it, they)?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
b Underline the verbs in the text (eg sailed, was, to chart).
c Circle words that tell about when (eg In late 1801).
d Draw boxes around the adjectives (words that describe nouns).
e Is this text fact or fiction? _______________________________
f The verbs are past tense, except one. Which verb is present tense? _____________
g Write recount next to two paragraphs that tell what happened.
h Write description next to the paragraph that describes Flinders’ journals.
Done
3 Why was Matthew Flinders so important?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
70
Read and learn
1
Read Flinders’ journal entry for Thursday 10 December, 1801.
a Use the word bank to complete this text.
Word Bank
south-western
whoever
thin
left
Vancouver
dry
map
weak-looking
full of
thick, green
Flinders
Flinders landed on an island in King George’s Sound. He had to make a new
____________________ of the Sound. This is a strip of water between the mainland of
___________________ - ___________________ Australia and some islands.
Captain _____________________ had landed on this island two years earlier. He found it
covered with __________________ , __________________ grasses and vegetables. He planted
fruit and vegetables for _____________________ came to the island next.
As fas as we know, nobody went there again until _____________________ . There was
nothing _____________________ of the fruits and vegetables. The only thing growing was
a few tufts of __________ , ___________ grass and a few _______________ - ________________
shrubs. The island was _____________________ rat holes.
b How do you think rats got onto the island?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
c What do you think happened to the vegetation on the island?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_____
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_____
d Why do you think Flinders wrote his journals?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
____
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
71
2 Read the table below.
a Underline the verbs in blue.
b Underline the nouns red.
c Underline the adjectives green.
When Captain Vancouver
When Captain Vancouver
When Matthew Flinders
landed:
left in 1791:
landed in 1801:
There was luxuriant grass
The luxuriant grass and
The luxuriant grass and
and vegetables on the
vegetables were still
vegetables had gone.
island.
there.
There were only tufts
Vancouver planted
of wiry grass and a few
watercress and fruit and
stunted shrubs in a thin
vegetable seeds.
layer of sandy soil.
There was no sign of the
vines or seeds planted by
Vancouver.
There were rat-holes
everywhere.
3 Read the journal entry for Wednesday 30 December, 1801.
a How many days between this journal entry and the one before? _________________
b Do you think it is the same place as described on 10 December, 1801? Why?
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
c Why do you think Flinders ordered the ship’s soldiers to parade in uniform,
with pipe, drum and muskets? ____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________________
72
Your turn
1
Use the Internet or library to find a map showing
Flinders’ journeys. Mark the 1801–1802 journeys on the
map of Australia on page 68.
A description describes a
particular person, place or
thing. It is often part of a
longer text. It uses:
UÊ ˜œÕ˜Ê}ÀœÕ«Ã
UÊ >`iV̈ÛiÃ
UÊ Ài>̈˜}]Ê̅ˆ˜Žˆ˜}Ê>˜`Ê
feeling verbs
UÊ `iÃVÀˆ«ÌˆÛiÊܜÀ`ðÊ
Done
2 Pretend you are a landscape artist. Draw the island’s vegetation before
Captain Vancouver landed.
3 Use the chart below to write how Matthew Flinders got his job.
what he had to know
experience
personal qualities
maths, navigation, sailing
joined the Navy, spent
brave, adventurous,
years at sea, drew maps
a leader
4 Write a job description for a ship’s surveyor. For this job you must have studied
maths, navigation and sailing. You must be in the Royal Navy. You must have years
of experience at sea, navigating ships and drawing maps. You need to be ...
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
___
____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
_________________________________________________________________________________________
___
____ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___
73
Adjectives
1
A noun is the name of a person, place or thing, eg Matthew.
A pronoun stands in place of a noun, eg instead of the noun Matthew, you
can use the pronoun he.
Use pronouns from the word bank to complete the text.
Word Bank
they
him
he
it
them
Matthew Flinders was the first person to chart the south coast of Australia.
__________ did this in a rotten, leaky ship. __________ was called the Investigator.
There were 88 people on board. Many of __________ got very sick. Flinders had
to leave his wife in England. She wrote to _________ , but _________ didn’t meet
again for nine years.
2 Adjectives describe people, places and things. They go in front of nouns
or pronouns, eg a brave person, a creepy island, a sick crew. Adjectives go
after some verbs, eg He looks brave, It feels creepy, The crew got sick.
a Circle the adjectives in the text below.
b Underline the nouns which the adjectives describe.
Flinders was amazing. He left his new wife in England and sailed around
Australia in a leaky boat. His friend, Trim, was a black and white cat. Trim got
sick from the bad food and tough life.
3 Use adjectives from the word bank to complete the text.
Word Bank
cramped
awful
hard
tough
fresh
leaky
How to be a good sailor
Be ____________________________ and work ___________________________! Don’t worry
about the ___________________________ ship or the ___________________________ food.
You will get ____________________________ food next year! There are 88 people on
board, so you must put up with ____________________________ conditions.
74
4
5
Match each adjective to its meaning.
a luxuriant
underdeveloped
b perforated
rich and healthy-looking
c stunted
full of holes
Many adjectives have a special ending. Circle the different endings of
the adjectives in each column.
6
y
n or en
ed
er or ern
ant or able or ful
leaky
unknown
stunted
western
luxuriant
wiry
rotten
crossed
southern
valuable
sandy
written
perforated
other
beautiful
Write an adjective poem about something to do with ships.
Begin with a topic.
Sailors’ Slop
Write an adjective describing it.
awful
Add another adjective.
awful, soggy
Add another.
awful, soggy, salty
Add another.
awful, soggy, salty, squishy
Add another.
awful, soggy, salty, squishy, smelly
End with your starting words.
Sailors’ Slop
topic
1 adjective
2 adjectives
3 adjectives
4 adjectives
5 adjectives
topic
75