WALLACE KIRSOP, Foreword
EDWARD DUYKER, The First French in Australia: the Soldiers of the Batavia 1629
The author reconstructs the role that eight French soldiers played in the story of the Batavia’s foundering off the coast of Western Australia and the subsequent mutiny from translations of Francisco Pelsaert’s journals, included in Henrietta Drake-Brockman’s Voyage to Disaster: The Life of Francisco Pelsaert.
Keywords: Batavia, Francisco Pelsaert, Huguenots, mutineers
EDWARD DUYKER, Josselin and Alexandre Le Corre: Early French Voyagers to Van Dieman’s Land and New Holland
The author details the seafaring lives of two Frenchmen, father and son, who both sailed into Australian waters on different expeditions in the second half of the eighteenth century. The article offers insights into the class system that determined rank in the French navy and the extent of French merchant shipping in the Indian Ocean at the time.
Keywords: Josselin Le Corre, Alexandre Le Corre, French navy, French merchant shipping, 18th century, Saint Malo, anti-corsair operations, Isle de France (Mauritius)
COLETTE REDDIN, Apropos of the 1984 Interview with J.G. Cornell
The author, on reading C.W. Nettelbeck’s interview with J.G. Cornell in Explorations no 12 (June 1992), was inspired to write up some of her own reminiscences of the period covered in the interview. These reminiscences are meant to complement Professor Cornell’s memory of people and events, and occasionally to correct inaccurate details or spellings of names. The author and her family were active participants in the cultural and social life of the Melbourne French community between the two wars and after the Second World War.
Keywords: J.G.Cornell, Albertine Gay, Marguerite Cockerton, René Vanderkelen, René Turck, Mr and Mrs William Mortill, Ballets Russes, Professor Belz.
WALLACE KIRSOP, Despair in the Antipodes
This article recounts the life and sad ending of a Mr Charles F. d’Aloustel, a Frenchman who came to Melbourne during the gold rush and subsequently became a teacher. He was charged of inappropriate behaviour towards the female pupils and decided to end his life rather than suffer the ongoing opprobrium.
Keywords: Charles d’Aloustel, French expatriates, suicide, auction of books, Guillaume Billiet, wine merchant, Aristide Dellas, teacher.
Françoise Lionnet and Ronnie Scharfman, Post-Colonial Conditions: Exiles, Migrations, and Nomadism, reviewed by Edward Duyker
Barry York, “Immigration Restriction, 1901-1957”, Studies in Australian Ethnic History, n° 1, 1992, reviewed by Edward Duyker
Anne Salmond, Two Worlds: First Meetings Between Maori and Europeans, 1642-1772, reviewed by Edward Duyker
Philippe Masson & Michel Vergé-Fianceschi, La France et la mer au siècle des grandes découvertes, reviewed by Edward Duyker
Susan Radvansky & Patricia Alsop, eds, Twixt Heather and Wattle. The First Minute Book of the Australian Literature Society, reviewed by Wallace Kirsop
Hélène Richard, Une grande expédition scientifique au temps de la Révolution françalse: le voyage de d’Entrecasteaux à la recherche de Lapérouse, reviewed by Wallace Kirsop