AUSTRALIA

AUSTRALIA.

Navigators.
George Bass, navigator and explorer (1771-1803).
Fifth stamp in a set of 6, issued on 14.02.1966.
Face value: 2 Australian dollars.
Printing: Recess.
Engraving and printed by Note Printing Branch, Craigieburn (Voctoria) Australia.
Print: 12,609,100 copies.
Size: 24 x 29 mm.

Catalogues
- Michel No. 378.
- Scott No. 416.
- Seven Seas No. 440.
- StampWorld No. 377.
- Stanley Gibbons No. 402.
- Yvert et Tellier No. 339.

George Bass, British surgeon, navigator and explorer, was born in Aswarby (Lincolnshire) on January 30, 1771 and disappeared at sea, off the coast of eastern Australia, in February 1803. Enlisted in the Royal Navy as a surgeon, he arrived in Sydney (New South Wales) on September 7, 1795. In October of the same year he set sail accompanied by Matthew Flinders, to explore coasts beyond those discovered by the colonists, the following year he explored more remote areas and in 1797 he came with Flinders to the strait that bears his name, between South Australia and present-day Tasmania, which he circumnavigated in 1798 and confirmed that it was an island. In January 1803 he undertook a journey from Sydney to New Zealand to locate fishing areas, but nothing was heard from him again.