Matthew Flinders, the flute-playing, cat-loving explorer who circumnavigated Australia, is going home – but what of his envoy Bungaree?

Matthew Flinders, who led the first circumnavigation of Australia, painted by Antoine Toussaint de Chazal. Illustration: GL Archive/Alamy

For someone who dedicated his life to finding, navigating and mapping things, it was unfortunate that Matthew Flinders’ body was lost for the better part of 200 years.

Archaeologists announced in 2019 they had rediscovered the grave of the first man known to have circumnavigated Australia, while digging under a park behind London’s Euston station during excavations for the HS2 high-speed rail line.