In October 1606, the great Spanish navigator Luis Vaes de Torres took two vessels through the waters that divide the land masses of New Guinea and Australia. In a journey of great adventure, courage and hardship, he was the first European to sail through today's Torres Strait and very possibly the first European to sight the east coast of Australia.Terra Australis Incognita focuses new light on the Spanish voyages of discovery that sailed from South America into the unknow...

On 5 February 1802, the 142-ton brig Venus cleared Sydney heads to begin a trading voyage through the islands of the Pacific. On board as captain was one of her owners, the surgeon, navigator, adventurer and now entrepreneur George Bass. Neither Bass nor the Venus completed the voyage. They simply vanished into the Pacific. The questions are many. Was the Venus wrecked on the coast of New Zealand? Did the ship sink in a storm? Or, as some reports suggest, did Bass reach South America only ...

'In Estensen, Flinders has at last found his Boswell.' Paul Brunton, The Weekend AustralianEstensen's book is a work of painstaking scholarship, worn lightly it will be an enduring contribution to Australian history.' Gillian Dooley, Australian Book ReviewEstensen gives us the ups and downs of the man in the commander's jacket. She has taken an 18th century mariner and made a 21st century man of him.' Martin Terry, Sydney Morning HeraldIn ...

In August 1800, George Bass returned to England after five years in the British colony of New South Wales. Gifted, ambitious and impatient with the limitations of a naval career, he took leave from the navy to purchase a ship of his own and organise a commercial venture to Sydney. He also met Elizabeth Waterhouse, and fell very much in love. They were married on 8 October 1800. On 9 January 1801, George Bass sailed for Australia.For the next two years, and across two oceans, letter...