It's our first episode! Today, we meet Trimothy the Rat Cat, the remarkable cat who became the first feline to circumnavigate Australia aboard HMS Investigator from 1801-1803. Born at sea in 1799, Trim won the heart of navigator Matthew Flinders, who in turn wrote Trim a lot of love poems.

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Primary Scholarly Biography:

Flinders, Matthew. A Voyage to Terra Australis. 2 vols., London, 1814.

Estensen, Miriam. The Life of Matthew Flinders. Allen & Unwin, 2002. (I skimmed this one! It's very dense! But extremely informative)

Morgan, Kenneth, ed. Australia Circumnavigated: The Voyage of Matthew Flinders in HMS Investigator, 1801-1803. 2 vols., Hakluyt Society, 2015.

Recommended Book on Trim:

Dooley, Gillian, and Philippa Sandall. Trim, The Cartographer's Cat. Adlard Coles, 2019. (I read this one too! Interesting account)

Institutional Resources:

Australian Dictionary of Biography, "Flinders, Matthew (1774-1814)," https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/flinders-matthew-2050

National Museum of Australia, "Flinders Circumnavigates Australia," https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/flinders-circumnavigates-australia

State Library of New South Wales, "Matthew Flinders' Journeys," https://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/terra-australis-australia/matthew-flinders-journeys

Wikipedia, "Trim (cat)," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trim_(cat)

Featured Articles:

Dooley, Gillian. "The Limits of Empathy: Matthew Flinders' Encounters with Indigenous Australians." The Conversation, 12 Feb. 2025, https://theconversation.com/the-limits-of-empathy-matthew-flinders-encounters-with-indigenous-australians-69345

Lowy Institute. "Matthew Flinders, National Pride and Dinner Diplomacy," https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/matthew-flinders-national-pride-dinner-diplomacy

Deaths During Australian Colonization

Population Before and After:

• Pre-1788: Between 315,000 to 1 million Indigenous Australians (most scholars estimate around 750,000)

• By 1900: Population dropped to approximately 117,000 - a decline of up to 90%

• Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Year Book Australia 2008

Frontier Violence Deaths:

• Estimated 20,000-30,000 Indigenous Australians killed in frontier conflicts

• University of Newcastle documented 10,000+ deaths in verified massacres (1788-1930), but research ongoing

• Source: Richard Broome, Aboriginal Australians: A History Since 1788; University of Newcastle Colonial Frontier Massacres project

Disease Deaths:

• 1789 Smallpox epidemic: killed approximately 50% of Aboriginal population around Sydney

• Additional diseases (influenza, measles, tuberculosis) caused massive population decline

• Source: National Museum of Australia; University of Western Australia research

Displacement:

• Indigenous peoples forcibly removed from traditional lands

• Relocated to reserves and missions

• Lost spiritual and cultural connections to Country

Key Research Sources:

• University of Newcastle's Colonial Frontier Massacres Map (c21ch.newcastle.edu.au/colonialmassacres)

• Richard Broome's Aboriginal Australians (considered the most authoritative account)

• National Museum of Australia collections

• Australian Bureau of Statistics historical data