Way back in 1797 Western Port was named by the 26-year-old explorer - surgeon George Bass when he piloted an expedition from Sydney in an open whale boat (can you imagine it!) into this extensive tidal bay - the second largest bay in Victoria. His good friend and explorer Matthew Flinders later named the sea between the mainland and Tasmania after him, calling it Bass Strait. It pays to have friends in high places! Fast forward fifty years and the site of Flinders (yes, named after Matthew Flinders) was established as a fishing settlement and sits at the point where Bass Strait meets Western Port. 

Western Port lies to the east of Port Phillip and in the eastern half of the state of Victoria, but in 1798 it was the most western section of coastline explored by George Bass and his crew travelling from Sydney in a whaleboat, no less. The drive today along the main Frankston-Flinders Road travels through several small villages and past hidden swimming beaches and surf breaks, rolling rural landscapes with pockets of bush, farmland and vineyards.