Flinders's article on the marine barometer, written and published while he was imprisoned on Mauritius; extracted from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Significantly, Flinders uses the name "Australia" in his text, though without stating a preference or explaining his reasons: "I venture to submit to them some observations upon the movement and state of the mercury upon the coasts of New Holland and New South Wales, the Terra Australis, or Australia, of the earlier charts…."

Flinders's article on the marine barometer, written and published while he was imprisoned on Mauritius; extracted from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. Significantly, Flinders uses the name "Australia" in his text, though without stating a preference or explaining his reasons: "I venture to submit to them some observations upon the movement and state of the mercury upon the coasts of New Holland and New South Wales, the Terra Australis, or Australia, of the earlier charts…."

The paper was based on data collected during his 1801–1803 investigations. A highly important contribution to maritime science, it was a pioneering work that provided sailors with a reliable method for predicting dangerous shifts in wind and weather, effectively setting the standard for the use of barometers on ships.

"In 1805 he wrote a paper on the Marine Barometer, based upon observations made during his Australian voyages. The instrument employed was one which had been used by Cook; Flinders always kept it in his cabin. He was the first to discover, and this essay was the first attempt to show, the connection between the rise and fall of the barometer and the direction of the wind. Careful observation showed him that where his facts were collected the mercury of the barometer rose some time before a change from landbreeze to seabreeze, and fell before the change from seabreeze to landbreeze. Consequently a change of wind might generally be predicted from the barometer. The importance of these observations was at once recognised by men connected with navigation. As the Edinburgh Review wrote, dealing with Flinders' paper when presented before the Royal Society on March 27th, 1806: 'It is very easy for us, speculating in our closet upon the theory of winds and their connection with the temperature, to talk of drawing a general inference on this subject with confidence''. (Scott, "Life of Flinders").