A campaign has been launched to take ownership of the first map to use the name “Australia”, which is currently located in the archives of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) in Taunton, Somerset.
British explorer and cartographer Matthew Flinders drew the original chart while in prison in 1804 after completing his famous circumnavigation of Australia in a leaky, rotting boat the previous year.
A group of academics, politicians and students rallied in front of Flinders’ statue in Melbourne’s CBD yesterday to launch an online petition urging the British government to give the map he drew to Australia.
But in the early hours of Australia Day (Aust time), the UKHO firmly rejected the nation’s claims to the chart in a carefully-worded statement.
“Matthew Flinders was a Commander in the Her Majesty’s Royal Navy on board the HMS Investigator and as such, the UK Government holds it as a public record and is officially part of the UK National Archives,” it said.
Historian and president of Federation of Australian Historical Societies Don Garden said Flinders was the first person to use the term Australia.
Until then, the continent was known as Terra Australis – on the eastern side it was New South Wales, while to the west it was New Holland.
“It seems the birth certificate of Australia because it was the first time there was a map of Australia drawn up, the first time that title was used,” he said.
“It is a significant part of our history.”
Flinders set out to circumnavigate Australia in 1801 after being commissioned by Sir Joseph Banks.
He completed his journey in June 1803 and was jailed by the French in Mauritius, where he had stopped for repairs, on his journey back to Britain.
Flinders remained in jail for six years.
Only on returning to Britain in 1810 was he able to work more on his map and an account of his journey, called A Voyage to Terra Australis.
His map of Australia and book were not published until 1814 while Flinders was on his deathbed. He died without seeing the fruits of his work.
Students from Flinders Christian Community College in Tyabb, southeast of Melbourne, have written a letter they plan to send to British Prime Minister David Cameron demanding the return of the map.
Federal opposition heritage spokesman Greg Hunt said he believed the petition would have bipartisan support.
“This is the Elgin Marbles of Australian history,” he said.
“I believe we will get the map back.”
He said he hoped 100,000 people would put their names to the petition to have the map returned in time for the bicentenary of Flinders’ death.
The original idea to have the map returned to Australia came from Sydneysider Bill Fairbanks.