George Bass      By Jake and Richard

George Bass (1771-1803?) was the explorer and navigator after whom Bass strait was named. He left Wales in 1795 as a surgeon on the ship that carried his friend Matthew Flinders. The two men sailed their small boat (Tom thumb) to explore Botany Bay and the George's River. Late in 1797, Bass set out again in a whale boat and went farther down the coast, naming Shoalhaver River, Two Fold Bay and Furneaux Land (now Wilson's Promontory). George Bass and Matthew Flinders sailed more then 18,000 kilometers looking at the coastline of Australia and Bass proved that Tasmania was an island.

In 1798 George Bass proved that there was a strait of water between the mainland and Van Dieman's Land.  Flinders joined him to circumnavigated Australia.        In 1803,he disappeared after he sailed into Pacific Ocean with a cargo that he wanted to sell in south America. A few  people believe that he was captured by the Spanish and forced to work in mines in Peru.