Bass, George

A British naval surgeon and explorer.

1771 - George Bass was born at Aswarby.

1789 - He trained in medicine at the hospital at Boston, Lincolnshire.

1794 - He joined the Royal Navy as a surgeon.

1795 - He arrived in Sydney in New South Wales on the Reliance, in which Matthew Flinders had also sailed, in February.

1796 - Accompanied by William Martin, they discovered and explored Port Hacking.

1797 - Bass sailed to Cape Howe, the farthest point of south-eastern Australia.

1803 - Recommended to Governor John Hunter that the passage between Van Diemen's Land and the mainland be called Bass Strait.