George Bass was born in 1771, and became a naval surgeon in the British Navy. He met Matthew Flinders on the same ship to Sydney in 1795, and the two became fast friends. Together they explored the Lake Illawarra and Port Hacking region, with Bass attempting to traverse the Blue Mountains later that year.

In 1797 he confirmed the existence of coal deposits on the coastal area south of Sydney, and explored the south coast of Victoria as far as Westerport in 1798. He postulated that Van Diemens Land was in fact an island, a theory he later confirmed later that year with Flinders as they circumnavigated it.

The stretch of water between Tasmania and the mainland was named in honour of George Bass. In 1800 he left the Navy on medical grounds, and went into business with Charles Bishop, trading goods between Sydney and London. In 1803, Bass departed Sydney for South America on a trading mission, and subsequently disappeared. No concrete evidence of his fate has come to light since.

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