Robert Brown was familiar with Labillardière's work when he arrived in Australia on the HMS Investigator under Matthew Flinders in late 1801.
The earliest known botanical collection of B. sphaerocarpa occurred in December 1801, during the visit of HMS Investigator to King George Sound.
Matthew Flinders aboard the Investigator charted the area in 1802 as part of his circumnavigation of Australia.
Keswick Island and neighbouring St Bees Island were first designated together as ‘L1 Island’ by Lieutenant Matthew Flinders, RN, in HMS Investigator in 1802.
The island is named for Henry Piers (d. 1902), a Royal Navy surgeon who served on the HMS Satellite and HMS Investigator and at the Pacific Station (Esquimalt), later Deputy Inspector of Hospitals and Fleets.
HMS Beagle | HMS Victory | HMS M31 | HMS Bounty | HMS M23 | HMS ''Humber'' | private investigator | HMS ''Bounty'' | HMS M27 | HMS M25 | HMS Investigator | HMS M33 | HMS ''Beagle'' | HMS Plumper (1848) | HMS Endeavour | K-tai Investigator 7 | HMS ''Victory'' | HMS Royal Charles | HMS Queen Mary | HMS ''Plumper'' | HMS Britannia | HMS ''Investigator'' | HMS ''Express'' | HMS Duke of Wellington | HMS ''Britannia'' | HMS Ark Royal | Yangtse Incident: The Story of HMS Amethyst | Presidential Young Investigator Award | Investigator | HMS ''Winchelsea'' |
In June 1801, Matthew Flinders' ship, HMS Investigator, carried two boxed Timekeepers by Earnshaw E520 and E543, at a cost of 100 Guineas each.
As HMS Investigator was commencing its anticlockwise circumnavigation, a French expedition under Nicolas Baudin was exploring the coastline in a clockwise direction.