March 16, 2017

March 16 marks the birthday of British navigator Matthew Flinders, who explored and charted much of Australia’s coast in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Flinders was born in England on March 16, 1774. In 1794, he sailed to the British colony of New South Wales, Australia. While on the voyage, he met surgeon George Bass. The two men shared a passion for exploration, and after they arrived in Australia, they explored Botany Bay in a small rowboat called Tom Thumb.

Matthew Flinders, born on March 16, 1774, was a British navigator who explored much of Australia’s coastline. Credit: State Library of South Australia (licensed under CC BY 2.0)

During separate voyages, Bass and Flinders each came to suspect that Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania) was an island; at the time, it was generally believed that it was joined to the Australian mainland. In late 1798 and early 1799, Bass and Flinders sailed completely around Van Diemen’s Land, proving their theory correct. At Flinders’s recommendation, the strait between Van Diemen’s Land and the Australian mainland was named Bass Strait in George Bass’s honor.

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George Bass and Matthew Flinders, two English naval officers, made several explorations along the Australian coast in the 1790’s. They sailed around Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), proving that it was an island. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In 1801, Flinders was tasked with exploring Australia’s southern coast to determine whether a strait separated eastern and western Australia. He reached Cape Leeuwin that December. He sailed eastward, exploring the coast. The expedition arrived in Sydney in May 1802. After refitting his ship, Flinders sailed north in July. He began to survey the coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria but discovered that his ship was in a dangerously rotten condition. He decided to complete the journey around Australia’s coast as quickly as possible. He reached Sydney again in July 1803, and his voyage proved that a strait did not divide the Australian mainland.

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Matthew Flinders sailed around Australia from 1801 to 1803. He surveyed the southern coast, and he named Spencer Gulf, Kangaroo Island, and Encounter Bay. Credit: WORLD BOOK map

In August 1803, Flinders left Australia to return to the United Kingdom. After a series of problems with his ship, he landed at Île de France, a French colony in the Indian Ocean that is now the country of Mauritius. France and the United Kingdom were at war at the time, and the governor of Île de France had Flinders imprisoned on the suspicion that he was a spy. He was finally freed in 1810 and he returned to the United Kingdom. He spent the last years of his life writing the book A Voyage to Terra Australis. Flinders died on July 19, 1814.

January 10, 2017

Last week, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) released its annual climate statement, and it was filled with bad news. Extreme weather lashed Australia throughout 2016, harming fragile landscapes and ecosystems both on land and in the sea. The BOM blamed the damaging weather extremes on climate change as well as an unusually strong El Niño, a periodic variation in ocean currents and temperatures that can affect climate throughout the world.

This photo taken on Feb. 12, 2016, shows the charred remains of rare alpine flora after bush fires raged through the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. Credit: Rob Blakers (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

The BOM listed a number of weather events that devastated parts of Australia in 2016. The cities of Darwin and Sydney saw their hottest years on record, while hot and dry conditions and large numbers of lightning strikes led to raging bushfires in Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia. Fires destroyed much of the unique alpine flora—including rare, 1,000-year-old cushion plants and King Billy pine trees—found in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area. The seas around Australia also reached record high temperatures, causing unprecedented bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef and other coral systems. Around Tasmania, hot sea temperatures damaged fragile kelp forests as well as the abalone, oyster, and salmon populations.

This photo of Uluru, also known Ayers Rock, shows its typically hot and dry environment. Heavy rains in late 2016 caused waterfalls to cascade down the sides of the giant sandstone formation. Credit: © Steve Vidler, SuperStock

Australia’s extreme weather in 2016 included both drought and heavy rains that caused unprecedented flooding. The areas around Darwin and Brisbane saw significantly less rainfall during the year, while heavier than usual rains soaked Adelaide, Canberra, Hobart, and Sydney. In central Australia, dangerous flash floods took out roads, washed away cars, and forced the evacuations of several communities. At Christmastime, record rains and floods forced the closure of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Uluru itself, a giant sandstone formation among sand dune plains, was awash with waterfalls.

The BOM climate statement warned that such extreme weather events will become more common, even become normal, as global warming continues to reshape Earth’s climate.

January 7, 2013

Firefighters and emergency crews in the Australian state of New South Wales are facing a highly dangerous situation battling bushfires. (A bushfire is an uncontrolled fire in bush areas, especially the Australian bush.) With temperatures in Sydney expected to reach 110 °F (40 °C) today and severely dry, hot winds blowing from central Australia, fire departments, volunteer brigades, and emergency authorities were bracing for the worst. Very similar conditions on Feb. 7, 2009, came to be known as Black Saturday, during which wildfires in Victoria state left 173 people dead and caused $4.4 billion in damage.

Bushfires are currently burning in 5 of Australia’s 6 states, with 90 fires currently out of control in New South Wales and in the mountain forests around the capital, Canberra. “Any fire that burns under the predicted conditions–110 °F (40 °C ) temperatures, below 10 percent humidity, winds gusting over  43 miles (70 kilometers) per hour–those conditions are by any measure horrendous,” Rob Rogers, deputy commissioner of the New South Wales rural fire service, told NBC News. Speaking on NBC News, New South Wales Premier Barry O’Farrell warned, “Tomorrow [January 8] is not going to be just another ordinary day. Tomorrow will be perhaps the worst fire danger day this state has ever faced.”

Australia's current bushfires are being made worse by unusually hot temperatures, e.g., 110 °F (40 °C) in Sydney. The average January temperature in Sydney is 65 to 75 °F (18 to 24 °C). (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

After touring the island state of Tasmania yesterday, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard promised emergency aid for fire victims, who told of exploding trees and fireballs that engulfed whole communities on January 5. A number of people remain accounted for.

Additional World Book articles:

• Celsius scale
• Fahrenheit scale
• Why Fires Need to Burn (a special report)
• Australia 2009 (a Back in Time article)