Side Salad: TRIM, The Cat Who Explored The World With Mathew Flinders

Title: Trim Memorial Sculpture.
Status: Open To The Public.
Distance: 20 Minutes Walk.
Location: Outside State Library.
Cost: Free.
Mathew Flinders circumnavigated the globe, then became the first man to circumnavigate Australia providing the first complete map in the process       and he was the man who named the continent Australia. Before Flinders it was called Van Dieman's Land or Terra Australis. He sailed in a row boat so small it was called the 'Tom Thumb' At his side all the way was his assistant between 1799 and 1804, a loyal cat called Trim.

Eventually they were marooned together on the island of Mauritius and Flinders was imprisoned for many years by the French as a spy. It was at this time that Trim met an unfortunate death. Mathew Flinders recorded in his journal at the time:

To the memory of Trim, the best and most illustrious of his race,
the most affectionate of friends, faithful of servants, and best of creatures.
He made the tour of the globe, and a voyage to Australia, which he circumnavigated,
and he was ever the delight and pleasure of his fellow voyagers...

People being people, when it came time to erect a memorial to the great man, the cat was totally forgotten, and a beautiful bronze sculpture of  Flinders on his own was placed beneath spreading fig trees on the west  side of the State  Library.

Almost 200 years after the death of Trim however, a movement started to restore the memory of Trim to where it belonged.Leaping from Flinders own words in his journals, bronze cat-prints were placed at the base of his sculpture, and on a window ledge about 6 or 7 metres behind Flinders a bronze sculpture of Trim was installed, looking up at his friend and fellow explorer. This must be one of the most unusual yet somehow poetically real memorials on planet Earth. The sculpture was made by  John Cornwall.

Trim has since been honoured in other ways, the many writings about Trim by Mathew Flinders was collected together and published as a book called simply Trim. This surely goes into history as one of the longest periods ever between the original manuscript and publication of the book. I can't help but feel that spirit of Mathew Flinders must be very pleased.

More of a surprise to him would be the Trim beach towel, Trim the cartoon book, the Trim tee-shirt, Trim badge, the CD, postcards, or bronze miniatures of the Trim sculpture all for sale at the library shop, or that the library cafe is called Cafe Trim.