Matt Flinders (born Sylvan Louis Bonett c. 1937, Alexandria, Egypt) is a former singer and TV presenter who rose to prominence in the late 1960s in Australia.
In the early 1960s he returned to England, formed another musical group, which included Ted Nettelbeck on piano,[3] and worked in London for four years.
When Flinders returned to Australia in the mid-1960s, he led the house band, as well as singing and playing double bass, at the Chevron Hotel, Melbourne.
[13] After Matt Flinders retired from the entertainment industry he worked as a civil celebrant (as Sylvan Bonett) with his wife, Coralie, in Adelaide.
Arnold Lloyd Bonett (c. 1930–2016),[14] the eldest, performed as an operatic bass baritone at the National Theatre, Melbourne and for the ABC – he received an award from the Italian Opera Festival Organisation in 1961; before he made a career change to the corporate world.
In 1965 the youngest brother, Christian ("Chris") Bonett, was recruited in Sydney by Dave Guard (who had left a US singing group, the Kingston Trio, in 1961).
[15] Chris also appeared on Guard's national TV series, Dave's Place (mid-1965) for ABC in the house band on electric bass guitar and vocals with Guard on vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo and tambourine and Len Young on drums; they were joined by alternate female lead vocalists: Frances Stone, Kerrilee Male or Norma Shirlee Stoneman.