Message from the President
Dear ISFAR members,
It is with great sadness that I begin this newsletter by acknowledging the recent passing of two longstanding and very significant members of ISFAR and French Studies in Australia, Professor Wallace Kirsop (12th August) and Dr Alastair Hurst (1st July 2026). Short tributes appear below and full obituaries are being prepared for a future issue of The French Australian Review. The current issue of The French Australian Review (see below) includes obituaries for Kenneth Dutton and Peter Hambly. Our most heartfelt condolences go to all the life partners and families of these four colleagues – they will be greatly missed.
Members will remember that we celebrated 40 years of ISFAR at a symposium and celebratory dinner held at The University of Melbourne in May 2025. Details of our next symposium to be held in April 2027 at RMIT University on the theme of Ways of Seeing the Other can be found below, together with the Call for Papers. Before that, we invite all Sydney-based members to join us in-person for a half-day symposium on Visions croisées: French Australian Artistic Encounters at The University of Sydney. More details on the program and how to register to attend in-person or online can be found below.
In other news, we include reports on the recent Melbourne Salon, a review of the Melbourne French Theatre’s recent play, Il était un petit navire [(SOS) Save Our Savings], an item on AFL in France, details of two forthcoming exhibitions, and a recent news article which will be of interest to ISFAR members.
The French Australian Review
The latest issue of The French Australian Review No 80 has recently been published. It is the first issue put together by the new editorial team, with John West-Sooby as Editor and three Associate Editors, Jean Fornasiero, Pauline Georgelin and Jane Gilmour.
The journal contains three peer-reviewed articles from researchers working in different fields of French-Australian relations—the arts, international exhibitions and literary responses to nuclear testing in Australia and the South Pacific.
Andrew Montana throws light on a hitherto little-known artist and art collector, Madame Hortense de Heuse Hazard. Visitors to the Geelong Art Gallery can see what is really the only legacy of her work and presence in Australia—an exquisite sculptural piece entitled I Am Left Alone, that dates from 1871.
Pauline Georgelin revisits the 1880–1881 Melbourne International Exhibition, examining the factors that motivated France’s participation and closely documenting some of the main features of the French exhibit.
Freya Davies-Ardill’s study analyses the literary expressions of protest that emerged from the Indigenous populations of Australia and the South Pacific in response to the nuclear tests carried out in the region during the decades following World War II. Her article thus takes us to the intersection of literature and politics.
Sadly, this issue of the journal also includes obituaries for two highly regarded scholars in the field of French studies and French-Australian connections—Kenneth (Ken) Dutton and Peter Hambly. Together with the very recent deaths of Wallace (Wal) Kirsop and Alastair Hurst, which are acknowledged elsewhere in this newsletter, we lament the loss of four of the pioneering leaders in the field of study of French-Australian relations.
In the French-Australian Encounter series we meet Mel O’Callaghan, one of the artists selected to receive funding from the French-Australian Cultural Exchange Foundation in its inaugural round of Resonance Grants. Working and living both in Australia (Sydney) and France (Paris), her experimental work was the focus of a day-long colloquium earlier this year at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.
Other notes and reviews fill out this issue of the journal which can be purchased or downloaded here.
Reports from the Research Committee
ISFAR members are strongly encouraged to attend, in person or online, our half day seminar highlighting the research of some of our outstanding younger colleagues:
Visions croisées: French Australian Artistic Encounters
ISFAR and the Department of French and Francophone Studies, University of Sydney
Wednesday 30 September 2026, 9.45am-1pm (AEST)
Venue: The University of Sydney in person, and online
The papers in this seminar build on the considerable evidence in recent exhibitions of the mutual interest and reciprocal influences that characterise the fields of French and Australian art. The Programme includes papers by winners and finalists in the Eloquence Art prize that take an innovative, comparative approach to the works of contemporary French and Australian artists, as they confront some of the major challenges of the world today: climate change; the Anthropocene; overconsumption and waste; posthumanism…
The keynote paper will be given by Dr Victoria Souliman, author of Australian Women, Art and the Interwar Years: Migration and Identity (2026).
The Programme and Abstracts are available here.
Registration Free but required. Please register your interest here. We will contact you nearer the date to confirm whether you are attending in person or online.
Enquiries: elizabeth.rechniewski@sydney.edu.au
ISFAR 2027 Symposium: Call for Papers
Ways of Seeing the Other. Representations of France and Australia
Façons de voir l’Autre. Représentations de la France et de l’Australie
Friday 2 April and Saturday 3 April 2027, RMIT
ISFAR members are warmly invited to submit paper proposals for the ISFAR 2027 Symposium and to encourage others to do so.
The Symposium invites papers that reflect on the significance of the choices made by Australian and French ‘cultural creators’—including artists, filmmakers, photographers, playwrights, directors and curators amongst others—in engaging with the other country. These representational choices, including of topic, focus, perspective, and medium, tend to influence the perceptions that we hold of one another, and may challenge, undermine or reinforce expectations and behaviours.
The focus of the conference is not only on what are normally classified as the visual arts, encompassing the creation and appreciation of painting, drawing, sculpture and photography, but also on the performing arts, theatre and dance, on film, television, graphic novels, exhibitions, museums and their catalogues, architecture, advertising, fashion and digital media, reflecting the rich and multi-dimensional nature of the myriad images that we create of one another.
Full details are available here.
Deadline for submission 16 October.
Contact: elizabeth.rechniewski@sydney.edu.au
French Australian Dictionary of Biography
Many ISFAR members will remember Ken Dutton who died in February this year. Marie Ramsland has written a perceptive and engaging entry for Ken for the French Australian Dictionary of Biography, describing him as an ‘exceptional teacher, captivating lecturer, exuberant entertainer, sensitive thesis supervisor, supportive colleague’, and detailing his extensive influence on French Studies in Australia—not only during a long career in academia but through his activities outside the University.
You can read about his many and varied contributions to French Studies on the ISFAR website.
Vale Wallace Kirsop
As most of you will know, Professor Wallace (Wal) Kirsop co-founded ISFAR with Dennis Davison and Colin Nettelbeck in 1985. Wal was one of Australia’s most eminent scholars in French Studies and in book-trade history. As well as French language and literature, he pioneered and taught French social and cultural history at Monash University from 1962 until 1998 when he retired. He was editor of the Australian Journal of French Studies from 1968 until 2002, and founding editor of the ISFAR journal Explorations, which he edited from its first number in 1985 until his retirement from the position in 2008. He made numerous personal contributions to Explorations and continued to work in the field of French Australian relations, including contributing to the French Australian Dictionary of Biography. Wal was present at our 40th anniversary symposium and dinner in May 2025 and his speech was published in issue 79 of The French Australian Review. Wal passed away on 12th August 2026 after a short illness.
Vale Alastair Hurst
Dr Alastair Hurst also enjoyed a long and established career in French Studies in Australia. Born in the UK, Alastair came to Australia as a young child, going on to graduate with a BA at the University of Sydney, and undertaking his MA and PhD in France. He was appointed to the French department at La Trobe University in Melbourne, later moving to Melbourne University before retiring in 2008. Alastair’s involvement with French language and culture lasted throughout his life: from his dedicated teaching career to his longstanding involvement in ISFAR, where he was also President from 2000-2008 for some years, and after his retirement, when he taught part time at Damascus Collage Ballarat and Ballarat Grammar. He was President of the Alliance Francaise in Melbourne for some years and President of the Alliance Francaise in Ballarat until his passing. He was a proud and active Catholic with special devotions to the Sacred Heart and Our Lady. Alastair passed away on 1st July 2026.
News from our members
Sporting Connections: Footy is Coming
Stephen Alomes reports below on Australian Rules Football in France. Adjunct Associate Professor at Deakin University, Stephen’s books include Australian Football. The People’s Game 1958–2058, Walla Walla Press, Sydney 2011.
Historically the major sporting connections between Australia and the south west and south east of France were with the two rugbies—a13 (League) and a15 (Union). Now there is a small development of Australian Football (AFL), also known as Aussie Rules, in the south west.
The Bordeaux Bombers were one of the first teams formed, later followed by the Bayonne Dockers (“Up the Basques” perhaps) and since 2022 a new rising force, Les Gabians de Palavas, located on the Mediterranean coast near the Camargue. The Seagulls (Gabians) draw on players from Montpellier to Toulouse.
In much of the world the expansion of the Australian game began with homesick expats. For example, Mick Sitch in Copenhagen, Denmark and then the emergence of the DAFL from 1989, with a strong local predominance and few Aussies.
The French story is different. Young French men and women either discovered the game as they took to the road in Australia or from clips on TV or YouTube. Interested in a new and exciting sporting adventure, they have been the pioneers of the eight teams of the French league, from the south to Paris, Lille and Lyons. An important event is the international Anzac Cup held each year near Fromelles. In the Swiss league Geneva is another French speaking team.
On 13 June 2026 the Gabians de Palavas defeated the other Occitan team, Stade Toulousain
13.14.92. to11.11.77 in the AFL France Grand Final 2026. Vive le Footy!
Credit: Gabians de Palavas Facebook
Melbourne Salon 29 July 2026
Visiting Scholar Chantal Claudel (Université Paris Nanterre) and Kerry Mullan (RMIT University) co-presented at a recent bilingual Melbourne Salon at the Alliance Française de Melbourne on the topic of French and Australian First Names.
Topics addressed included how first names are cultural indicators, encompassing age, ethnicity, and gender, revealing certain aspects of a person’s identity and evoking specific events from a particular era. While first names in France were originally rooted in religion, a close correlation between social background and name choice has been observed since the 1970s. Australian first names were traditionally influenced by British and Irish names following colonisation, but practices have increasingly diversified through migration and multiculturalism. Indigenous Australian names, often closely tied to land and culture, are also becoming more widespread.
Kerry Mullan and Chantal Claudel
Credit: Aurélie Audureau, Alliance Française de Melbourne
Theatre review : Il était un petit navire (SOS) Save Our Savings by Jean-Pierre Martinez
Catherine de Saint Phalle reviews Melbourne French Theatre’s most recent production.
Melbourne French Theatre
Directed by Paul Wanis
Produced by Michel Bula
4 August 2026 to 15 August 2026
The Maison de Maître 203–205 Canning Street Carlton 3053
All on board… from the very first knock!
Il était un petit navire (SOS) Save Our Savings by Jean-Pierre Martinez is a deadly voyage that starts as a small trip to get out of a tax haven island menaced by a tsunami.
There’s hardly any stage to speak of. Yet, the set design by Alexia Lamy is pure genius—because it is so strongly suggested rather than heavily described. A small, blue painted, (wobbly), five-centimetre plinth is all that separates the spectators’ feet from the actors. Views of a port surrounded with ochre Mediterranean houses, or of the sea, are projected on the back wall, a few boxes, a few sound effects—a paucity of tricks—yet you feel the boat rock as soon as the first passengers, clutching their belongings, mostly cases full of money, step on board, glancing behind them. This reminded me of the set design in Gary Abrahams’ Something Natural But Very Childish adapted from Katherine Manfield’s short stories, where two actors are clutching a handle over their heads and swaying on a wooden box as you hear the horse-drawn bus carry them along.
These passengers are a motley lot—accountants for multi-national companies, ill-matched couples, shifty female fake-pregnant mystics, men about town, policemen under drag-queen cover…. The captain himself is more than dodgy and the amenities are reduced to a wonky toilet on the upper deck.
Nora Charif Chefchaouni and Michel Bula are those who carry the play. Chefchaouni is the nasty, acid millionairess and Bula is the man about town, who seems to see through all the scheming and officiates the lot back to lucidity.
All these people are in a tight tango with their money. The captain has lost all of his and is trying to get it back with his ill-begotten old tub of a boat. All are trying to pull one over the tax, or their clients, or their millionairess fiancée. Feelings and motives are laid bare as the captain loses his compass and his way and they have to face the fact that they are miles from anywhere in the high seas with no provisions to speak of, in a leaky ship which they take turns to bail out.
All seems lost, and as the plot delivers each passenger’s hidden, grimy agenda, the cupid, manipulative, mercantile, bare unscrupulousness of every man Jack of them shows the hidden wheels of the global corporate world in an acid satire.
It’s when all they have left to them is their common humanity that it becomes even more interesting….
Exhibitions
Discovering the Impressionists: Paul Durand-Ruel, Art Dealer Among the Artists is showing at the Geelong Art Gallery until 11 October 2026. The exhibition flows across five galleries, presenting more than 70 paintings from across two generations of Impressionist artists, the majority from private collections in France and never before seen in Australia. Underpinning it all is the remarkable legacy of Paul Durand-Ruel—the art dealer who staked everything on a movement the establishment refused to accept.
Until 15 November 2026 Heide presents Brassaï Secret Paris, the most comprehensive survery of the Hungarian-born French photographer ever seen in Australia. More than 150 vintage prints provide a fascinating visual journey into 1930s Paris.
Recent article
The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that Brendan Berne, former Australian Ambassador to France, has worked with composer Matthew Hindson and French cellist Sebastian Hurtaud to develop a cello concerto that tells the story of Narcisse Pelletier, a French cabin boy who was abandoned by his ship’s crew in Far North Queensland in 1858 and adopted by the Uutaalnganu people, with whom he lived for 17 years.
The concerto was commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and was developed with the support of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. It is scheduled to premiere in NAIDOC Week 2028.
Contact us at ISFAR
ISFAR: isfarinc@gmail.com
The French Australian Review: isfar.journal@gmail.com
ISFAR Research Committee chair: elizabeth.rechniewski@sydney.edu.au
Join ISFAR or renew your ISFAR membership. Membership includes subscription to The French Australian Review journal.
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Useful links
Alliance Française de Melbourne www.afmelbourne.com.au
Association of French Teachers in Victoria (AFTV) www.aftv.vic.edu.au
Australian-French Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN) www.afran.org.au
Australian Historical Association www.theaha.org.au
Bastille Day French Festival Melbourne www.bastilledaymelbourne.com
French Assist Melbourne www.frenchassistmelbourne.org.au
French Australian Chamber of Commerce www.facci.com.au
ISFAR resources
ISFAR provides resources to researchers in the field of French-Australian studies, with the support of the authors or contributors who give their approval to publish this material. Access all ISFAR resources www.isfar.org.au/resources.