by Max Meads, reporter

The remains of 19^th-Century explorer and cartographer Captain Matthew Flinders have been found last night near London Euston Station.

Flinders is widely credited with mapping the coastline of Australia for the first time and circumnavigating the continent, and has many locations in Australia named after him, such as Flinders Station in Melbourne the town of Flinders in Victoria and Flinders Ranges in South Australia.

Australian High Commissioner George Brandis said today: “The feat of circumnavigating and mapping Australia for the first time is an epic tale of the feats of the explorers of that era.”

“He’s certainly very famous in Australia. When the European settlement occurred in Australia in. 1788 the settlers settled a land they didn’t know. It’s a history of discovery.”

Flinders’ final resting place was feared lost for nearly 200 years after his headstone was moved in the 1840s during renovation works, but his remains were found by excavation teams while excavating a burial ground for the HS2 project.

While Flinders’ body had clearly decomposed, he was identifiable by a lead chest plate on the remains, which had not corroded over time.

Flinders’ remains will be reinterred alongside the other excavated remains at a location to be announced at a later date.