VISITORS and islanders have celebrated the landing of Matthew Flinders on Coochiemudlo in 1799.
The festive day included dancing, market stalls, music and the re-enactment of the landing.
Coochiemudlo Island Heritage Society secretary David Paxton said Matthew Flinders had landed on Coochiemudlo Island in July 1799 when he was trying to find rivers along Australia’s east coast.
He was sailing in the 32 foot-long sloop Norfolk.
Mr Paxton said the navigator, who was 25 years at the time, missed all the rivers as they had sand banks in front and could not be seen from the sea.
Mr Flinders anchored and went ashore on Coochiemudlo Island to get a more accurate reading on his sextant.
“He called it the Sixth Island and did a sketch of it,” Mr Paxton said.
“He put us on the map.”
Mr Paxton said a World War II navigator living on Coochiemudlo in the 1970s had discovered in Mr Flinders’ journals that he had found the island.
The re-enactment of the landing was first held a few years after that discovery.
A sextant built in about 1810 in Bristol is used as part of the re-enactment.
“The society purchased it in 2013 and it’s in working order,” Mr Paxton said.
“About 15 months after Flinders was here, convicts stole the Norfolk and tried to go to China.
“The boat got wrecked just off Newcastle at a place now called Pirates Point.”
The market was the last convened by Bev Holcroft, who has been in the role for 25 years.
Mrs Holcroft said she would still have a stall at the markets held five times a year on Coochiemudlo Island, but was glad that would not longer have the responsibility of being the organiser.
