How did George Bass contribute to the development of the Melbourne area?

George Bass travelled with Matthew Flinders and explored and charted much of the coastline south of Sydney in the early days of the New South Wales colony. This added valuable information to knowledge and maps of the Australian coastline. It allowed for settlement to expand south of Sydney.

In 1798, Bass explored along the southern coast of what later became the colony of Victoria. His journeys led him to the belief that Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) was separate from the mainland. Governor Hunter wished for this theory to be proven conclusively, so he commissioned Bass and Flinders to circumnavigate Van Diemen's Land. By January 1799, they had completed their circumnavigation of the island. Governor Hunter subsequently named the stretch of water between the mainland and Van Diemen's Land as "Bass's Strait", later to be known as Bass Strait. This was a useful discovery, as it reduced travelling time from England to New South Wales by a full week.