IVAN BARKO, Foreword
JILL DONOHOO, ‘Terre vraiment étrange’ – French Travel Writers on Australian Cities between the Gold Rush and Federation
The author explores the reactions to Australian cities of several French visitors between 1851 and 1901, who, on their return to France, published books on their experiences in Australia.
Keywords: travel writers, concept of the ‘other’, the built environment, social behavior, ‘old world’ comparisons, convict heritage, socio-political reform, working life,
LES HETHERINGTON, The Sydney French Club, 1885–1893
This article focuses on the Sydney French community in the 1880s and early 1890s, revealing the existence of a club where the leading figures of this community could meet, organise their activities and attempt to influence the local Australian establishment, occasionally competing with the French Consulate.
Keywords: Cercle français (French Club), Cosmopolitan Club, French woolbuyers, French Association, 1880s and 1890s, French occupation of the New Hebrides, consular activities
PATRICIA CLANCY, Tasma’s Remarkable Career as a Lecturer in France and Belgium (1880–1893)
This is an account of the career of a highly gifted Australian woman who, under the pseudonym of ‘Tasma’, became a cultural ambassador for her country in France and Belgium, using the then popular medium of public lectures.
Keywords: Jessie Couvreur (pen-name Tasma), Max O’Rell (Léon Paul Blouet), public speaking/lecturing, journalism, Société de géographie commerciale de Paris, status of women
WILLIAM LAND, Lapérouse and the Identity of the Unknown Mariner of Vanikoro
The author, medically qualified and the President of the Friends of the Lapérouse Museum at Botany Bay, reports on a most unusual doctoral thesis in Dentistry from the University of Nantes, on the subject of the dentition of the human skeleton discovered in 2003 at the Lapérouse expedition’s Vanikoro shipwreck site. The report covers many unexpected aspects of the expedition, much of it beyond the specific dental focus of the thesis.
Keywords: forensic dental examination, Lapérouse expedition, Vanikoro island, skeleton identification, facial reconstruction, Lepaute Dagelet
IVAN BARKO and ELAINE LEWIS, A Desktop Editor who Concealed her Many Qualifications and her Distinguished Career — Kate Jones (1949–2015), Obituary
L. F. Bollée and Philippe Nicloux, Terra Australis, reviewed by Alexis Bergantz
Prue McCausland & Marion Sargent, compilers, The Tasmanian Exhibition 1891–92, with over 1000 biographies from the Launceston Family Album, reviewed by Wallace Kirsop
Adrian Mitchell, Plein Airs and Graces: The life and times of George Collingridge, reviewed by Wallace Kirsop
Alistair Rolls, John West-Sooby and Jean Fornasiero (eds), If I Say if: the Poems and Short Stories of Boris Vian, reviewed by Colin Nettelbeck
Douglas Wilkie, The Journal of Madame Callegari: The true story behind Alexandre Dumas’s book The Journal of Madame Giovanni, note by Kerry Mullan
ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes