Not so Pacific

The Pacific Gull is an impressively large bird, with a wingspan up to 1.5 m. Despite its name, it is mainly found on Australia's Southern and Indian Ocean coasts, not the Pacific. I photographed this one today at Point Avoid in Coffin Bay National Park, South Australia.

Point Avoid was named by Matthew Flinders RN, commander of the HMS Investigator on 17 February 1802. The name refers to the navigational hazards he encountered in the area. 

Flinders, between 1801 and 1803, was the first to circumnavigate the Australian continent and prove that the various bits and pieces sighted and mapped by numerous seafarers starting with the Dutchman Janszoon in 1606 and especially Captain Cook in 1770 were all part of the same land mass. It was Flinders who first coined the name Australia for the continent.