The French Australian Review – No 73 Australian Summer 2022-2023

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JANE GILMOUR & ELAINE LEWIS, Foreword

Colin Nettelbeck was a co-founder of ISFAR and its journal Explorations (now The French Australian Review). He served in various roles (including president) in ISFAR from 1985 to 2000 and returned as president from 2011 to 2018. A Colin Nettelbeck Scholarship was set up in 2021 to recognise the central role Colin played in founding the Institute and his longstanding commitment and invaluable contribution to all its public and research activities. Colin passed away on October 21, 2022 after a long illness.

OPINION PIECES

DAVID CAMROUX, AUKUS and its Aftermath

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In this transcript of his talk presented at an ISFAR seminar in the series ‘After the Elections: Is a Reset possible in French-Australian Relations?’, the author comments on the political situation in France following the French elections in May 2022 and then examines the response to the AUKUS decision in France and the import of the AUKUS decision in terms of Indo-Pacific geopolitical relations. He then comments on the positive response to the visit to France by newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and surmises that a return to the relationship that flourished in the 1990s and early 2000s may evolve.

Keywords: AUKUS, French-Australian relations, Macron, Albanese, Indo-Pacific, South-East Asia.

IVAN BARKO, Australians’ Love-Hate Relationship with the French in the Last Two Centuries

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An exploration, drawing on newspaper articles as well as other material, of the contradictory dispositions that have prevailed in Australian attitudes towards the French over the past two hundred years. The author explores the concept of what he calls the ‘Archibald syndrome’—dreaming of being French, the historical references that have coloured Australians’ views of the French, and the shared affinities between the two countries.

Keywords: francophilia, francophobia, the French in the Pacific, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides Question, Consul Biard d’Aunet, John Feltham Archibald, Stella Bowen.

ARTICLES

KERRY MURPHY, Henri Kowalski (1841–1916) in the Antipodes and His Comic Opera Queen Venus

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French virtuoso pianist and composer Henri Kowalski visited Australia in 1880 and then returned in 1885 when he settled in Sydney for twelve years. In 1881 he wrote a comic opera, Queen Venus. with a libretto by Marcus Clarke. This paper traces the transformation of Queen Venus into a French fantaisie-bouffe called La Guerre aux hommes, ten years later. It reveals a story of unusual cultural entanglement across two countries.

Keywords: Cultural transfer, opera, travelling artists, Australian colonial music, nineteenth century France.

VERONIQUE DUCHÉ AND AMANDA LAUGESEN, ‘Somewhere in France: Language, Place and Remembrance in Australian Soldiers’ Periodical Culture

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An exploration of the thesis that while for contemporary Australians Villers-Bretonneux is the main ‘lieu de commémoration’ (place of remembrance), for the First World War diggers, ‘lieux de mémoire’ (sites of memory) were created from a much wider and varied list of place names— places where they had been, and fought, Villers-Bretonneux being for them just one of many. Focusing on the 1918–1929 period, this article explores the Australian experience and memory of the First World War by analysing how the concept of place was constructed within trench journals and returned soldier periodical print culture.

Key words: World War 1, ‘places of commemoration’, ‘places of memory’, trench journals, returned soldiers journals, returned soldiers’ periodicals.

EDOARDO BRUNETTI, An Australian Perspective on Occitan and Breton Ethnoregionalism in the Post-war Period to 1981
This article is free access for one month, expiring Fri 14 April 2023.

In France, the student occupations and strikes of May ’68 are well known, but the period was also of immense significance to the country’s ethnoregionalist movements, who sought to increase power and self-determination. From a period of rebuilding following the Second World War, the Breton and Occitan movements, which campaigned against the perceived oppression of their regions by the central French state, were able to find new audiences and grow significantly in the 1960s and 1970s. Through an analysis of primary and secondary sources, this article charts the history of the movements throughout the era, demonstrating how the growth of the movements was linked to the broader societal politicisation of the era. As the period of radicalism waned, so did the Breton and Occitan movements, which saw many of their key demands implemented following the election of François Mitterrand as President, depriving the movements of their key reasons for existence. Nevertheless, the movements left a significant legacy in this period, through both the acceptance of regionalist political demands by the national left, and the ideological refoundation of Breton and Occitan ethnoregionalism. The author reflects on how these movements have some parallels in Australian history.

Keywords: Brittany, Occitania, ethnoregionalism, Occitanism, Emsav, regionalism, nationalism.

DOCUMENTS NOTES AND REVIEWS

EMILY DOTTE-SAROUT, The Matilda Effect in Archaeology

The transcript of an interview first published in French in the AFRAN newsletter about the history of women archaeologists in the Pacific region. The article explores the fate of women who sought to pursue careers as archaeologists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and how their work has been consistently overshadowed by that of their male peers. She details the exploits of one of these women in particular, Adèle de Dombasle, a number of whose illustrations are held in the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris.

Keywords: Pacific archaeologists, women in archaeology, Adèle de Dombasle, Edmond Ginoux de la Coche, Musée des Explorations du Monde, ethnographic illustrations.

KATHERINE HAMMITT, The Colibri of Pacific Publishing: Interview with Au vent des îles Founder, Christian Robert

This article is published in French. In an interview conducted in July 2022, Christian Robert talks about his role as founder and manager of the largest publishing house in francophone Oceania, Au vent des îles. From his position as editor and president of Tahiti’s editors’ association, Robert speaks to the history and outlook of publishing and disseminating francophone literature across the Pacific and throughout Europe. Though the corpus he promotes does not yet have the global visibility it merits, Robert ultimately foresees a hopeful future for Oceanian literature, as well as for expanding publishing across the Pacific.

Keywords: Oceania, publishing, literature, francophone, Transpacific, Au vent des îles.

PETER HODGES, French-Australian Encounters Number 8: French-Australian Exchanges in Literary Périgord: A personal Insight through the Translation and Promotion of a Memoir

Through a chance encounter, an Australian writer and translator embarks on a privileged journey into the world of literary Périgord as he translates into French and promotes his memoir, previously published in English.

Keywords: literary Périgord, Académie des Sciences, des Beaux-Arts et des Belles-Lettres du Périgord-Dordogne, Dad’s Diary: the wanderlust chronicles, Le Journal de papa : l’esprit d’aventure, Librairie Marbot, Périgueux.

TOM THOMPSON, Frank Moorhouse’s French Connection: A Tale of Reciprocity

The author, who is an Australian publisher, explores Australian author Frank Moorhouse’s lifelong interest in France and, in particular, his friendship with translator and publisher Jean-Paul Delamotte.

Keywords: Association Culturelle Franco-Australian (ACFA), Fictions 88, Festival Les Belles Étrangères, League of Nations Trilogy.

EDWARD DUYKER, A False Portrait of Lapérouse

The author, who is currently researching a biography of Jean-Francois de Galaup, comte de Lapérouse, examines a portrait in the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts, which is claimed to be a portrait of Lapérouse and through comparison with other existing known portraits of Lapérouse, suggests that it may well not be as stated.

Keywords: Lapérouse, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Musée Lapérouse in Albi.

THE ANNUAL IVAN BARKO PRIZE

Awarded to Patricia Clarke, for her article ‘Australian Connections with the Franco-Prussian War and the Commune of Paris, 1871’, published in Issue Number 71 (Summer 2021–2022).

Keywords: Ivan Barko prize, ISFAR.

BOOK REVIEWS

Charlotte Mackay, Book Review: Jane Tuttle, My Sweet Guillotine

In her latest novel, Tuttle returns to the city that nearly killed her—the city to which she fled after the death of her mother and which attracts many of the artistic type by virtue of the intrinsic value it seems to place on the arts—in an attempt to rebuild her life post-accident.

Keywords: Jayne Tuttle, Paris, guillotine, trauma and survival.

Andrew Montana, Book Review: Jean-Claude Lesage, Australian Painters in Étaples, translated by Pauline Le Borgne

Lesage’s Australian Painters in Étaples may be a springboard for curious minds to take this English translation as a cue for further research into these artists working abroad in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Keywords: Australian painters, Étaples, artists ‘colonies, late nineteenth century, early twentieth century art.

Andrew McGregor, Book Review: Gemma King, Jacques Audiard

Jacques Audiard is without doubt one of France’s most celebrated contemporary filmmaking auteurs. It is, therefore, most timely and appropriate for Gemma King’s outstanding and definitive volume on the filmmaker to be published in the prestigious French Film Directors series by Manchester University Press.

Keywords: Jacques Audiard, French Film Directors.

Elaine Lewis, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes including a note on the latest journals in France relating to French-Australian Studies.

The French Australian Review – No 72 Australian Winter 2022

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Foreword

KERRY MULLAN, Preface

IVAN BARKO, Tribute to Colin Nettelbeck

ALEXIS BERGANTZ AND ELIZABETH RECHNIEWSKI, ISFAR@35: Australia and France in a Regional Global Context: Past Engagements and Future Research Directions

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The authors review the work of ISFAR, The French Australian Review and The ISFAR Research Committee in the light of recent political events. Since Australia’s geographical position affords ISFAR a close window onto its Pacific neighbourhood, ISFAR and FAR are uniquely placed to play a crucial role in providing the historical and contemporary perspectives from which to evaluate and document French Australian relations in this region.

Keywords: French-Australian relations, Indo-Pacific and France, New Caledonia, French Polynesia.

BARBARA SANTICH, ISFAR Research Project: French-Australian Exchanges in Viticulture and Winemaking

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British colonists very quickly saw the potential in Australia for growing grapes and making wine, and naturally looked to France as their model. Early vignerons, such as Gregory Blaxland and William Macarthur, visited France to study vineyards and winemaking practices, and often returned with cuttings of French vines. In the second half of the century French vignerons, such as Camille Réau and Jean-Pierre Trouette, established vineyards in Australia. In view of their significance, ISFAR has initiated a project to produce entries for the FADB and a book highlighting the significance of these exchanges. This paper gives an outline of the aims and scope of the project, together with potted biographies of several of the more influential individuals.

Keywords: ISFAR, Australia, France, wine viticulture, William Macarthur, Louis Edouard Bourbaud, Bill Hardy.

Elizabeth Rechniewski, Beatrice Grimshaw: Traveller, Writer and Advocate for Australian Imperialism in the South Pacific

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The author argues that Beatrice Grimshaw was not only a traveller but a prolific writer, of novels, pamphlets and cruise brochures, newspaper and magazine articles that were highly influential in forming the contemporary public’s representations of the Pacific islands and their inhabitants. She also sought to intervene in the political affairs of the nascent Australian nation, encouraging and seeking to facilitate through her writings and her contacts with leading Australian politicians its imperialistic ambitions over the neighbouring islands, including those partly or wholly claimed by France, the New Hebrides and New Caledonia.

Keywords: Beatrice Grimshaw, France, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Alfred Deakin.

Nicole Townsend, ‘Kangaroos’ and ‘Froggies’: Australian-French Relations and the Allied Invasion of Lebanon and Syria, 1941

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This article focuses on Australia’s war with France during the Second World War, when Australian troops partook in the invasion of the Vichy French mandates of Lebanon and Syria in June 1941. It uses various sources, including oral history interviews, memoirs, diaries, and unit histories, to elucidate how Australian troops negotiated relations with the French, who were both friend and foe. In doing so, it sheds light on a lesser-known period in the Australian-French relationship.

Keywords: Australian-French relations, Operation Exporter, Syria, Lebanon, Second World War, Vichy France, Free France.

Chantal Crozet, Convergence and Divergence on Gender Inclusive Language in France and Australia

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This article aims to reveal some rich points of ideological divergence and convergence of gender inclusive language (hereafter GIL) between France and Australia as found in scholarly literature and the written press. French and Australian societies are both being challenged by the push for more gender inclusive language. However, linguistic challenges to achieve gender inclusivity in French are much more complex and extensive than they are in English. This explains in part the much more intense level of public debate on GIL in France than in Australia, a point of divergence between the two countries.

Keywords: Gender inclusive language, inclusive writing, The Académie Française.

Kerry Mullan, French-Australian Relations: Une Entente Glaciale Revisited

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In light of last year’s deterioration in French-Australian relations, this article will examine the AUKUS exchanges between former Prime Minister Scott Morrison and President Emmanuel Macron, with a particular focus on the underlying French and Australian English cultural values and assumptions which influenced their communications. It will be argued that these different ways of seeing the world were largely responsible for the decline in relations between the two leaders. The author comments that some benefits of multilingualism, such as better understanding of other worldviews (and one’s own), intercultural communication skills, connection with others, and access to more knowledge, are often considered secondary—and yet, they are indispensable.

Keywords: French-Australian relations, cultural values, interactional style, AUKUS, multilingualism

DOCUMENTS, NOTES AND REVIEWS

Danielle Clode, Book Review: Jean Fornasiero and John West-Sooby (eds), Roaming Freely Throughout the Universe: Nicolas Baudin’s Voyage to Australia and the Pursuit of Science

This book focuses on science and the role of François Péron in Nicolas Baudin’s voyage to Australia and its lasting effects. Péron was one of only three scientists to complete the journey out of the fourteen who originally embarked. There are four sections: the first on the scientific context of voyaging, the second on Péron himself, the third on the scientific records from the voyage and the fourth which, initially, seems to be about participants who were not Péron. In the reviewer’s opinion, the book is ‘not simply a collection of essays’ because the essays have been skilfully situated to foreshadow later developments, gradually layering and revealing detail, nuance and complexity and giving the collection an unexpected narrative structure that is, at times, positively thrilling’.

Keywords: Baudin, Péron, Le Havre Museum, Malmaison, Naturaliste, Géographe.

Andrew Montana, Book Review: John Drury, Two French Sisters in Australia: 1888–1922: Berthe Mouchette and Marie Lion, Artists and Teachers

John Drury’s tribute to the two French sisters, Berthe Mouchette and Marie Lyon reinforces their contributions to French-Australian relations through both their teaching and their cultural activities in both Melbourne and Adelaide. Drury’s meticulous research adds depth to our knowledge of their work, especially of their artistic practices and Lion’s writing. They are also remembered for their post-war charitable work and the ongoing connections with Dernancourt and the Somme.

Keywords: Berthe Mouchette. Marie Lion, Oberwyl, Lady Loch, Annie Besant, Theosophy Adelaide.

Edward Duyker, Book Review: Suzanne Falkiner, Rose: The Extraordinary Voyage of Rose de Freycinet

Suzanne Falkiner’s Rose is an engaging account of the life of Rose de Freycinet, née Pinon (1794–1832). The book is also a biography of Rose’s husband Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (1779–1842) on whose Uranie expedition 1817–1820 she was secreted, in male guise, at the age of twenty-two. Falkiner has used Rose’s manuscripts and the various edited and published versions of her journals and letters (and those of her husband and fellow voyagers) with discernment and skill.

Keywords: Rose de Freycinet, Uranie, Louis de Freycinet, Académie des Sciences.

Briony Nielson, Book Review: Andréas Pfersmann, La littérature irradiée : Les essais nucléaires en Polynésie française au prisme de l’écriture

In La littérature irradiée: Les essais nucléaires en Polynésie française au prisme de l’écriture, Andréas Pfersmann, a literature academic at the Université de la Polynésie française, explores the interplay of issues relating to France’s nuclear testing in the Pacific, as reflected in the work of literary writers in French Polynesia, as well as in metropolitan France and in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Keywords: littérature irradiée, nuclear tests Pacific, Pfersmann, French Polynesian literature.

Edward Duyker, Book Review: Margaret Cameron-Ash, Beating France to Botany Bay: The Race to Found Australia

Reviewer Edward Duyker argues that the idea that Lapérouse was engaged in a race with Arthur Phillip and had secret orders to establish a French colony at Botany Bay, in 1788, is not based on available research.

Keywords: Lapérouse, Arthur Phillip, Botany Bay, French in Australia.

Elaine Lewis, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

The French Australian Review – No 71 Australian Summer 2021-2022

JANE GILMOUR & ELAINE LEWIS, Foreword

PATRICIA CLARKE, Australian Connections with the Franco-Prussian War 1870 and the Commune of Paris 1871
WINNER OF THE 2022 IVAN BARKO AWARD

In 1870 the Sydney Morning Herald published reports of the fast-moving Franco-Prussian war from its Paris correspondent Anna Blackwell culminating in her forced departure from the city as it was about to be besieged by Prussian forces. Her graphic eyewitness account of her escape by train to Boulogne was followed in 1871 by an equally graphic account of the operation of the short-lived Paris Commune by Irish-born London-based journalist, Frances Cashel Hoey. Hoey’s eyewitness account, first published in the English periodical the Spectator was widely republished in Australian capital city newspapers leading to her appointment in 1873 by the Victorian weekly the Australasian to write a regular women’s column ‘Society and Fashion’ from London. The Franco-Prussian War was the greatest overseas news story in the Australian press in 1870 and the revolutionary Paris Commune made the city the centre of world interest. Both Anna Blackwell and Frances Cashel Hoey were great reporters who saw immediately that they were witnessing events that would live in history.

Keywords: Franco-Prussian War 1870, Paris Commune 1871, Anna Blackwell, Frances Cashel Hoey, female foreign correspondents, Sydney Morning Herald, Australasian.

WILLIAM A. LAND, The Légion d’Honneur in Australia

The history of the Légion d’honneur in Australia dates back to the first award which was made to Sir William Macarthur in 1855. The Légion d’honneur is situated in the context of other French awards and its significance in terms of French-Australian relations. An appendix provides an overview of the history of the Société des Membres de la Légion d’honneur.

Keywords: Légion d’honneur, l’Ordre du mérite, military awards, Société des Membres de la Légion d’honneur (SMLH).

DEIRDRE GILFEDDER, Australian Film Festivals in France: Interviews with the Founders of Three Festivals of Australian and New Zealand Cinema

While Australian cinema occupies only a niche market in France it has found a place with French audiences and in French film culture. The role of three festivals of Australian cinema in making Australian films more widely available is highlighted with the three founding (and current) directors of these festivals.

Keywords: Festival du Film Australian, Le Bout du Monde (Pézenas), Festival du Cinéma Aborigène Australien à Paris, Festival des Antipodes Saint Tropez, Helen Buday, Greta Morgan Elangué, Bernard Boriès, Festival Rochefort Pacifique Cinéma et Littérature, La Rochelle.

ELAINE LEWIS, Australian Art in Paris: Gallery Arts d’Australie Stéphane Jacob

Stéphane Jacob established Arts d’Australie in Paris in 1996, after a visit to Australia when he first became acquainted with Aboriginal art. The interview that forms this article was based on an article in Le Figaro that appeared in March 2020. The interview covers Jacob’s passionate interest in and extensive knowledge of Aboriginal art and his promotion of this and other Australian art through his gallery in Paris and his links with other cultural institutions in France and Europe.

Keywords: Stéphane Jacob, Guy Cogeval, Isabelle de Beaumont, John Kelly, Musée des Confluences Lyon, Oceanographic Museum of Monaco, Musée du Quai Branly-Jacques Chirac, Editions Arts d’Australie Stéphane Jacob.

MARIE-THÉRÈSE JENSEN, The Droulers Family in Australia

The links between France and Australia that arose in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries through the wool industry are many. This article tells the story of the author’s grandfather, Jean Drouler, who came to Australia in 1912 as a junior buyer for Masurel Fils. He and his wife settled in Australia after the First World War and became an integral part of the French community in Sydney. One hundred years later, their descendants now number over one hundred.

Keywords: Masurel Fils, Jean Droulers, French Chamber of Commerce (Sydney), Société de Bienfaisance (French Benevolent Society) (NSW), Jean Trémoulet, French Consul, Playoust family.

PETER MCPHEE, French Australian Encounters no 7: Finding Traces of the French Revolution in the Landscape

Physical traces of the French Revolution are few and far between in the built environment. Renowned historian of the French revolution recounts his voyages of discovery across France as he has located some of these vestiges.

Keywords: liberty tree Tamniès, Camps-sur-l’Agly, Saint-Julien du Sault, the church during the Revolution, Robespierre, autels de la patrie, ‘vandalism’.

EDWARD DUYKER, Revealing Père Receveur; A Portrait Beneath our Noses

Claude-François-Joseph Receveur, later known as Père Laurent, was a chaplain and naturalist on board the Astrolabe during Lapérouse’s fateful expedition. He died at Botany Bay, NSW in 1788 and was the first Catholic priest be buried in Australia.

Could he be the friar depicted in two images of the expedition? The author argues that the visual evidence would suggest yes.

Keywords: Lapérouse expedition (1785–1788), Macao, Brazil, Monterey, Gaspard Duché de Vancy.

The Annual Ivan Barko Prize

Awarded to Andrew Montana for his article in The French Australian Review, number 70., ‘Virtue and Sentiment: Madame Mouchette’s Art and Teaching in Melbourne 1881–1892’.

Key words: Andrew Montana, Berthe Mouchette.

BOOK REVIEW

GEMMA KING, Alexis Bergantz, French Connection: Australia’s Cosmopolitan Ambitions

The influence of cultural practices and motifs from France on nineteenth century Australian life.

Keywords: ‘Frenchness’, Alliance Française de Melbourne, New Caledonia, French convicts, World War 1.

BOOK NOTE

ELAINE LEWIS, Paul Wenz, A Coral Eden (Le Jardin des coraux) translated by Maurice Blackman, Sydney, Exile Bay ETT Imprint

A new publication in the Sydney-Paris Link series from ETT Imprint, A Coral Eden was first published in French in 1929.

Keywords: Jean-Paul Delamotte, Paul Wenz, Maurice Blackman, Tom Thompson, Sydney-Paris Link series.

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

Including: a note on a collection of Australian children’s fiction translated into French that has been donated recently to the State Library of Victoria by Dr Helen Frank; and a note on new translations and readings/performances of Australian plays by the Maison Antoine Vitez, Paris, within the context of ‘Australia Now’, an Australian government promotional program in France.

The French Australian Review – No 65 Australian Summer 2018-2019

ELAINE LEWIS, Foreword

ELIZABETH RECHNIEWSKI, Voyage of the Pilgrims
WINNER OF THE 2018 IVAN BARKO AWARD

In June 1902, a small group of prospective settlers set out from Sydney for the New Hebrides. They were accompanied by A. B. Paterson–‘Banjo’ Paterson–who had been hired by the Sydney Morning Herald to report on their progress and the nature of the territory to which they were venturing. This article draws on contemporary French and Australian newspapers, including Paterson’s articles for the Herald, and parliamentary debates, to explore the significance of this settlement project in the context of the decades-long dispute between France, Britain and Australia over the future of the New Hebrides. It pays particular attention to the years immediately following Federation, when the new nation of Australia offered government and private support to boost British settlement of the islands.

Keywords: Australian colonisation, New Hebrides, Vanuatu, Banjo Paterson, Pacific imperial rivalry, Annandale settlement

BRIONY NEILSON, Convict Suffering and Salvation in New Caledonia and Australia: the Life and Writing of French Bagnard-Poet, Julien de Sanary

This article offers a contextualised analysis of the published writing of the French convict-poet Julien de Sanary. Transported from France to the penal colony in New Caledonia in 1881, Sanary spent almost forty years of his life incarcerated in the archipelago before his case was taken up by an Australian woman, Wolla Meranda, who successfully petitioned for his release in 1920. The first extended study of Sanary’s life and work–and the first ever in English–this article discusses the meaning of the act of writing for the French convict and provides an analysis of some of the major themes of his poetry. In addition it points out the greater significance of Sanary’s life and poetry, arguing that his experiences and relationship with Meranda are illustrative of a prevailing trope in the early twentieth century concerning the backwardness of New Caledonia as a European settler colony relative to Australia.
Keywords: bagne, convict poetry, bagnard-poète, prison writing, New Caledonia, convict transportation, Julien de Sanary, Wolla Meranda, penal colony, criminal justice

Speeches delivered at the ISFAR/Alliance Française de Sydney event, ‘French and Australian Dialogues‘ (May 2018) and at the Melbourne Salon (November 2018):

ROBERT ALDRICH, The 2018 New Caledonian referendum

This article provides us with a sweeping history of both the colonial legacy in New Caledonia and the various ‘ideologies that have underlain campaigns for change in status’, thus supplying the reader with a perspective from which to view present and future options.

Keywords: Referendum, New Caledonia, French Pacific territory, French outre-mer, événements of the 1980s, self determination

DENISE FISHER, The Referendum in New Caledonia

Denise Fisher writes a detailed description of events in New Caledonia during the week of the referendum and her incisive comments demonstrate its complexity, as well as its importance to Australia.

Keywords: New Caledonia 2018 independence referendum, 1988 Matignon/Oudinot Accords, Noumea Accord, Groupe de dialogue sur le chemin de l’avenir

CARRILLO GANTNER, Mirka Madeleine Mora 1928-2018 (Tribute at State Funeral, September 2018)

This tribute to Melbourne artist Mirka Mora, delivered at her State Funeral in September of 2018, farewells a woman who ‘has been at the very heart of Melbourne’s creative life and popular esteem for many decades’.

Keywords: Mirka Mora, Honoured Artist of the City of Melbourne, State Funeral

ELAINE LEWIS, Barry John McGowan 1945–2018

Barry McGowan’s article, ‘Convicts and Communards: French-Australian relations in the South Pacific, 1800–1900’, appeared in The French Australian Review issue 64. Barry was a prodigious researcher who published sixteen books as well as many reports, articles and papers.

Keywords: Barry McGowan, ‘Convicts and Communards’, French Australian Review issue 64, ANU, Medal of the Order of Australia

PHILIPPA HETHERINGTON, Leslie John Hetherington 1955–2018

Les Hetherington MA (University of Sydney), B. Litt (Australian National University) was a scholar of Australian social and migration history. In particular, he examined the history of the French community in Australia, as well as Australian history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries more broadly. He was particularly committed to biographical approaches to the past, authoring a number of articles for the Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Keywords: Les Hetherington, Leslie John Hetherington, social and migration history, French community in Australia, Australian Dictionary of Biography

KERRY MULLAN, Melbourne Salon and ISFAR events, 2018

10 May 2018 ‘Were it but for a lemon’ – Dr James Tibballs,
17 May 2018 ISFAR event in Sydney: The Referendum in New Caledonia: what is at stake? The second in the series, ‘French and Australian Dialogues’ – Professor Robert Aldrich and Ms Denise Fisher,
2 August 2018 French convicts and the case for freedom in Australia – Dr Alexis Bergantz,
27 September 2018 French Contributions to Australian Life. ISFAR Colloqium, University of Adelaide, Reflections on the Commemorations of the Great War,
8 November 2018 The Referendum in New Caledonia: what is at stake? – Professor Robert Aldrich and Ms Denise Fisher, – Emeritus Professor Colin Nettelbeck,
14 July 2018: Bastille Day
26 November 2018 Presentation – Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes académiques to Dr Kerry Mullan,
27 November 2018 ISFAR end-of-year gathering

PAULINE GEORGELIN, French Australian Encounters no 2: Anzac Day at Villers-Bretonneux 2018

On April 2018 Pauline Georgelin was one of 8,000 people, mostly Australians, who gathered at Villers-Bretonneux for the Anzac Day Dawn Service, commemorating the centenary of the battle of Villers-Bretonneux in 1918 – a personal description of an annual commemoration.

Keywords: Anzac Day at Villers-Bretonneux, Sir John Monash Centre, Villers-Bretonneux, World War 1 commemorations, Édouard Philippe, Wéo TV

BOOK NOTES:

IVAN BARKO, 101 mots pour comprendre l’Australie, by Peter Brown & Jean-Yves Faberon (eds), published by the Centre de documentation pédagogique de Nouvelle Calédonie. The 101 topics are grouped into ten chapters, namely First Peoples, Explorers, History, Economics and Development, Cultures, Institutions and Politics, External Relations and (Relations with) New Caledonia.

Keywords: 101 mots pour comprendre l’Australie, Peter Brown & Jean-Yves Faberon, New Caledonia, Centre de documentation pédagogique de Nouvelle Calédonie

CAROL NETTELBECK, Mirka and Georges: a Culinary Affair, published by The Miegunya Press and Museum of Modern Art Heide contains black and white family photos and coloured photos of Mirka’s artworks, a profusion of French recipes and an engaging text, all of which pay homage to two extraordinary personalities.

Keywords: Mirka and Georges: a Culinary Affair, Melbourne artist, Miegunya Press, Museum of Modern Art Heide

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

The French Australian Review – No 64 Australian Winter 2018

JANE GILMOUR, Foreword

BARRY McGOWAN, Convicts and Communards: French-Australian Relations in the South Pacific, 1800–1900

An examination of the impact on French-Australian relations of the decision by the French government to establish a penal colony in New Caledonia. The article documents Australian reactions to the colony drawing on press reports and official documents. The transportation of some 4,000 Communards in the 1870s was a particular cause of concern and various escapes and attempted escapes are documented. Reference is made to the possible influence of one of these escapees on the character of the hero of Marcus Clarke’s For the Term of His Natural Life. The treatment of convicts on New Caledonia is described as well as incidents between the Melanesian inhabitants and the French colonists.

Keywords: New Caledonia, penal colony, Communards, Marcus Clarke, Michel Sérigné, Henri Rochefort

COLIN NETTELBECK, French Awareness of Australia: The Role of Albert Métin (1871–1918)

Drawing on two articles which appeared in Le Petit Parisien in July and September 1918, the author presents a case for the importance of Albert Métin’s role in raising awareness of Australia in France and of the potential for France to establish closer economic ties with Australia following the First World War. The article documents Métin’s career, including his study visit to Australia in 1899, his subsequent publication of Le socialisme sans doctrines and his appointment to lead the French Economic Mission to Australia in late 1918. The two articles are included as Appendices in the original French and in English.

Keywords: Albert Métin, French Economic Mission to Australia, Le socialisme sans doctrines, World War One, musée social

WILLIAM A. LAND, France-Australia by air

This article documents the role of French aircraft and pilots in Australian aviation history. Reference is made to a small number of key figures who were active in the air forces of both countries. An appendix lists the aircraft of French origin that were used by all three of the Australian armed forces.

Keywords: aviation history, Walter Oswald Watt, Marcel France Dekyvere, Maurice Guillaux

YANNICK LAGEAT and LES HETHERINGTON, Juliette Lopès-Rastoul-Henry

This brief note in an addendum to an article that appeared in Issue 63. It documents the recent discovery of a letter from Juliette to Victor Hugo. It also includes the reproduction of a photograph of Juliette, which is held in the collection of the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences, Powerhouse Museum, in Sydney.

Keywords: Juliette Lopès-Rastoul-Henry, Victor Hugo

WALLACE KIRSOP, A Hitherto Unnoticed Image of Francis de Castelnau, French Consul General in Melbourne 1863–1877

The recent purchase by the Baillieu Library of the University of Melbourne and the State Library of Victoria, of the former Ploos van Amstel collection of nineteenth-century illustrated Australian newspapers, has brought to light a previously unknown image of Francis de Castelnau. The note documents the occasion and transcribes the text of the accompanying article in The Argus of 11 July 1863.

Keywords: Francis de Castelnau, Ploos van Amstel

NATALIE EDWARDS, An Interview with Catherine Rey: Écrire entre deux langues/Writing between two languages

This note is the transcription of an interview with the French writer now living in Australia who has recently published her first novel in English. Two previous novels had been translated into English. The interview explores issues of translation, voice and how it is defined to a certain extent by voice and the creative process.

Keywords: Catherine Rey, translation, The Lovers, Stepping Out, The Spruiker’s Tale

JANE GILMOUR AND ELAINE LEWIS, The Morning Star Tapestry in the Sir John Monash Centre, Villers-Bretonneux

This note documents the opening of the Sir John Monash Centre in Villers-Bretonneux on 24 April 2018 and the creative process and production of the Morning Star Tapestry, designed by artists Charles Green and Lyndell Brown and produced by the Australian Tapestry Workshop in Melbourne, for permanent display in the Centre.

Keywords: Sir John Monash Centre, Australian Tapestry Workshop, Villers-Bretonneux, Morning Star tapestry

PETER HODGES, French-Australian Encounters, Number 1

This encounter describes a chance meeting with l’Association Internationale des Amis de Pierre Loti when they came to visit the grave in a nearby neighbour’s field, where the wife of Pierre Loti was buried.

Keywords: Pierre Loti, Blanche de Ferrière, La Birondie

BOOK NOTES

Their Fathers’ Land: For King and Empire, by Paul Wenz, introduced and translated by Marie Ramsland and The Thorn in the Flesh, by Paul Wenz, with an introduction by Helen Garner translated by Maurice Blackman, notes by Ivan Barko

Food for Friends, by Babette Hayes with illustrations by Francis Yin, notes by Patricia Clancy

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographic Notes

The French Australian Review – No 63 Australian Summer 2017-2018

ELAINE LEWIS, Foreword

THIERRY VINCENT, An Exploration of the Fate of the Australian and Tasmanian Ethnographic Collections brought back by the Baudin Expedition, following the 1804 French Scientific Voyage to Australia [Australian and Tasmanian objects deposited at the Château de Malmaison]

Explorer Nicolas Baudin was entrusted with assembling a collection of plants and animals for the Empress Josephine, some of which were delivered to the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle and the rest to her château at Malmaison. However, on 29 May 1804 some Australian and Tasmanian objects were delivered to Malmaison to join the collection of other objects already stored there. This article explores the fate of these collections and suggests a new approach to determine the quality and importance of the ethnographic objects deposited at Malmaison, where they were kept during Josephine’s life-time and what may have happened to them after 1819 when many were sold to ‘enlightened and passionate amateurs’.

Keywords: Baudin expedition, Empress Josephine, Malmaison, ethnographic objects, Musée des Antiquités

YANNICK LAGEAT and LES HETHERINGTON, The Adventurous Life of Juliette Lopès-Rastoul-Henry

Juliette Henry was born in Laon, France in 1840 in poor circumstances. She died in Sydney, Australia in 1898 and in her lifetime was successively the companion of two figures from the Paris Commune, was once suspected of threatening the peace of the Colony of New Caledonia and late in life felt justified in appealing to the President of the French Public to intervene on her behalf. In 1898 she was described as ‘one of the most large-hearted and intellectual women in Australia’.

Keywords: Juliette Lopès-Rastoul-Henry, Lucien Henry artist, French Commune, New Caledonia, Henri Rochefort, Cercle Littéraire Français, Victor Hugo

TRANSCRIBED BY IVAN BARKO, Excerpts from ‘Behind the Scenes at SBS French Radio’: Danièle Ney-Kemp at the Melbourne Salon

SBS broadcaster Danièle Ney-Kemp in conversation with Christophe Mallet and Jean-Noël Ducasse, chaired by Kerry Mullen at The Melbourne Salon Wednesday October 1 2014. A glimpse behind the scenes at SBS French Radio. Daniele Kemp joined SBS in 1986 and was Executive Producer of SBS French Radio when she retired in 2011. She has received the prestigious decorations of Officer of the French Order of Merit and Chevalier of the French Legion of Honour for her services to the French-speaking community.

Keywords: Danièle Ney-Kemp, Christophe Mallet, Jean-Noël Ducasse, SBS French Radio, Executive Producer of SBS French Radio

MEAGHAN MORRIS, Introducing Ross Chambers

A reprint of Meaghan Morris’s outstanding tribute to Ross Chambers first published in Cultural Studies Review, volume 20 n^o 1, March 2014.

Keywords: Ross Chambers, Meaghan Morris, Untimely Interventions, Professor of French, University of Sydney, University of Michigan, Atmospherics of the City

MARGARET SANKEY, Obituary: Ross Chambers (1932–2017)

An obituary of Ross Chambers Distinguished Marvin Felheim Professor of French and Comparative Literature Emeritus at the University of Michigan. An inspired educator, working in the areas of French Studies, Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies. He received the French award of Officier dans l’Ordre des Palmes academiques.

Keywords: Ross Chambers, Marvin Felheim Professor of French, French Studies, Comparative Literature, Cultural Studies

CHARLES SOWERWINE, Obituary: Jacques Adler (1927–2017)

Jacque Adler was a member of the Jewish Communist underground in Paris and was active during the second World War. He was involved in the Resistance takeover of the offices of the UGIF (Union générale des Israélites de France) and it was to the UGIF records he would return when writing his PhD thesis at Melbourne University in the early eighties. A version of his thesis was published by Calmann-Lévy in France and another by OUP, The Jews of Paris and the Final Solution. His research was ongoing.

Keywords: Jacques Adler (1927–2017), UGIF (Union générale des Israélites de France), The Jews of Paris and the Final Solution

JAMES GRIEVE, Obituary: Jacqueline Mayrhofer (1936–2017)

Jacqueline Laure Georgette Lécorcher, known to students and teachers of the ANU as Jacqueline Mayrhofer, was born in Troyes, Champagne. She spent most of her life in Australia and taught for decades at ANU. A highly-regarded teacher who inspired the teaching of Introductory French at university level and published the text and tapes, À vous maintenant (River Seine, 1984).

Keywords: Jacqueline Mayrhofer (1936–2017), ANU French Department, À vous maintenant

JULIET FLESCH, Obituary: Olive Wykes Mence (1921–2016)

Olive Wykes, Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur taught French in the Faculty of Education at Melbourne University. Her survey, Foreign Language Teaching in the Australian Universities: a report prepared by Olive Wykes, with recommendations by the Sub-Committee on Foreign Languages was published by the Australian Humanities Research Council in 1963 and in 1968 she and M. G. King published Teaching of Foreign Languages in Australia with the Australian Council for Educational Research.

Keywords: Olive Wykes, Foreign Language Teaching in the Australian Universities, Teaching of Foreign Languages in Australia

KERRY MULLAN, Melbourne Salon and ISFAR events 2017

Melbourne Salons 2017: (1) Mobilities and Migrations in the Bordeaux Wine Trade: From Regional Rivalries to International Icons by Jacqueline Dutton; (2) Flanders in Australia: A Personal History of Wool and War by Jacqueline Dwyer; (3) Les masculinités de la Révolution : L’hercule jacobin, le muscadin, la femme virile by Jean-Marie Roulin.

The first presentation of French and Australian Dialogues, Alliance Française de Sydney, Fraught or Friendly Relations: New Perspectives on Australia and New Caledonia.

Award of Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques to Elaine Lewis, French Consulate General Melbourne.

Bastille Day 2017, Diggers and Poilus: Shared Memories from the First World War by Pauline Georgelin.

Keywords: Kerry Mullan, Jacqueline Dutton, Jacqueline Dwyer, Jean-Marie Roulin, Alliance Française de Sydney, French and Australian Dialogues, Pauline Georgelin, Elaine Lewis

BOOK REVIEWS

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

The French Australian Review – No 62 Australian Winter 2017

JANE GILMOUR, Foreword

JEAN FORNASIERO AND JOHN WEST-SOOBY, The French Revolution and the Politics of Sea Voyaging

This article provides details on an international research project, bringing together eight researchers from three continents, into State-sponsored French voyages in the Revolutionary era. It seeks to set these voyages within their intellectual and political contexts. The article provides insights into some of the early findings of this research—the similarities and differences in the voyages undertaken between 1789 and 1804, with particular reference to two voyages led by Nicolas Baudin, the first in 1796 and the second departing in 1800.

Keywords: French Revolution, voyages of scientific discovery, Nicolas Baudin, the Belle Angélique, the Géographe

ALEXIS BERGANTZ, The Culture and Politics of Frenchness in Australia (1890–1914): Reflections on a Research Project

This article presents a reflection on the evolution of the author’s research project between 2011 and 2015, as it shifted from a focus on migration to one situated within a transnational frame. The author was able to draw extensively on the archives of the Sydney and Melbourne French consulates, which are housed in France. Through these and other documents he was able to explore the role that France and the French played in the development of Australian culture in the late nineteenth century.

Keywords: migrant history, national identity, New Caledonia, cultural capital, Russel Ward, Archives of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs

VÉRONIQUE DUCHÉ AND DANIEL RUSSO-BATTERHAM, Australians at War: Food Matters

The authors have drawn on the archives of the University of Melbourne to document and analyse Australian soldiers’ experiences and intercultural interactions around food in the First World War. The importance of food in the daily structure of life and in troop morale, the quality of food and the opportunities for experiencing local food are documented and discussed through extracts from personal diaries, articles, letters and other documents. The article is enlivened by the inclusion of a number of cartoons from Aussie, The Australian Soldiers’ Magazine.

Keywords: The First World War, Australian troops in France, the Comforts Fund, Aussie, the Australian Soldiers’ Magazine, The University of Melbourne archives

COLIN NETTELBECK, The National Library of Australia’s French Second World War Collection

This note documents a little-known collection of French material from the Second World War, which was acquired by the National Library of Australia in 1867. The collection consists of many hundreds of documents relating to the political, social, moral and legal aspects of the war and occupation in France. There are broadsides, pamphlets, propaganda leaflets and publications representing all perspectives on this troubled period in French history. The note includes a small number of cartoons/illustrations from these various publications.

Keywords: France during the Second World War, Léon Delarbre, H.P. Kraus Periodicals, The National Library of Australia

WILLIAM A. LAND, The Palmes Académiques in Australia

This note documents the history of the establishment of the Palmes académiques, their current status and the history of the awards in Australia.
A list of Australian recipients of the award was compiled by the author and can be consulted on the ISFAR website under Resources.

Keywords: Palmes académiques, Association des Membres de l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques (AMOPA)

CHRISTINA OLSZEWSKI, COLIN NETTELBECK AND PATRICIA CLANCY, Micheline Giroux (1928–2017)

An obituary of a highly regarded teacher of French, who spent many years in the Department of French at the University of Melbourne and then, after retiring, continued teaching at the Stonnington University of the Third Age.

Keywords: lecteur, University of Melbourne, Melbourne French Theatre

BOOK REVIEW
Flanders in Australia: A Personal History of Wool and War, by Jacqueline Dwyer, reviewed by Edward Duyker

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes.

Explorations – No 54 Australian Winter 2013

IVAN BARKO, Foreword

DOUGLAS WILKIE, Marie Callegari in Australia: the Identity of Alexandre Dumas’s Narrator in Le Journal de Madame Giovanni

This article presents the case for identifying Alexandre Dumas’s narrator in Le Journal de Madame Giovanni as Louisa La Grange, who was transported to Van Diemen’s Land in 1843. It traces the life story of Louisa La Grange, who changed her identity many times and assumed different names, including Marie Callegari.

Keywords: convicts, Marie Callegari, Louisa La Grange, Alexandre Dumas, musical performances, gold fields

JILL DONOHOO, Australian Reactions to the French Penal Colony in New Caledonia

This is an historical essay on Australian reactions to the mid-nineteenth century French take-over of New Caledonia. Jill Donohoo highlights ‘post-convict shame’ as a likely reason for the Australian colonies’ opposition to the establishment of a penal colony in the Pacific and she analyses the emergence of an early independent Australian foreign policy.

Keywords: French penal colony, New Caledonia, post-convict shame, security threat, foreign policy, spying

LES HETHERINGTON, An Emigrant, not a Traveller: Adolphe Prosper Duprez

This article tells the story of Adolphe Prosper Duprez, a public-spirited French immigrant who was largely responsible for the building of a road from Bowral in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales to the Wombeyan Caves. Duprez had chosen Bowral as his home and lived there for three decades until his death in 1900, shortly after the opening of the road which meant so much to him.

Keywords: Adolphe Prosper Duprez, NSW, gold fields, Bowral, Wombeyan Caves

VÉRONIQUE DUCHÉ, Elliott Christopher Forsyth (1924–2012), Obituary

MARIE RAMSLAND, Sue Ryan-Fazilleau (1955–2012), Obituary

BOOK REVIEWS, BOOK NOTE

Noelene Bloomfield with the assistance of Michael Nash, Almost a French Australia: French-British Rivalry in the Southern Oceans, reviewed by Edward Duyker

Viviane Fayaud, Le Paradis autour de Paul Gauguin, Paris, CNRS Éditions, Collection Réseau Asie directed by Jean-François Saboure, reviewed by Fiona Caro

Derek Guille, illustrated by Kaff-eine, translated by Anne-Sophie Biguet, The Promise: the Town that Never Forgets/N’oublions jamais l’Australie, reviewed by Colin Nettelbeck

Marie Darrieussecq, All the Way (Clèves), translated by Penny Hueston, reviewed by Patricia Clancy

Australian Journal of French Studies, vol. L, no 1, January-April 2013, special issue ‘La Terre australe : History and Myth’, note by Ivan Barko

ELAINE LEWIS, French-Australian Bibliographical Notes

Explorations – No 43 Dec 2007

IVAN BARKO, Foreword

ALBERT SALON, A French Diplomat’s Reflections on Australia and the Pacific

With an introduction by Ivan Barko, which provides biographical information about Albert Salon, who was Cultural and Scientific Counsellor at the French Embassy in Canberra from 1969-1975. this article presents a chapter from Albert Salon’s book, Colas colo, Colas colère, both a personal memoir and vigorous political pamphlet.

Keywords: Canberra French School, Maison de France, nuclear testing in the Pacific, condemnation of the French by International Court of the Hague, national Federation of Alliances Françaises, Papua New Guinea, Noumea, New Caledonia

IVAN BARKO, Lepaute Dagelet at Botany Bay and his Encounter with William Dawes

This is an account of the life and career of the French astronomer Joseph Lepaute Dagelet, who was the senior astronomer on the Lapérouse expedition. he was elected to the Académie Royale des Sciences. Dagelet served on the Boussole, Lapérouse’s ship, and was close to his commander. The article focuses on the period spent by the expedition at Botany Bay between 26 January and 10 March 1788, and Dagelet’s encounter with the First Fleet’s astronomer, William Dawes. The two scientists were planning long-term cooperation but the Vanikoro shipwreck a few weeks later put an end to Dagelet’s life.

Keywords: École Militaire, Académie Royale des Sciences, Botany Bay, William Dawes, Vanikoro shipwreck sites, Jérôme Lalande

Explorations – No 34 Jun 2003

(issued February 2004)

IVAN BARKO, Foreword

MARIE AND JOHN RAMSLAND, Visitors with “an unusual charm”: French Celebrities at the Australia Hotel, 1891–1932

The authors, both of the University of Newcastle, explore the French associations of the now-defunct Hotel Australia in Castlereagh Street in Sydney, focusing on its foundation late in the nineteenth century and its status as the pre-eminent destination for sophisticated European travellers into the early decades of the twentieth.

Keywords: Hotel Australia, Sarah Bernhardt, Castlereagh Street

IVAN BARKO, French-Australian Relations in the Pacific during Bill Hayden’s Term as Minister for Foreign Affairs 1983–1988
This paper gives an account of the fluctuations of French-Australian relations during Bill Hayden’s term as Minister for Foreign Affairs. The 1980s were a period of ostensible conflict between France and Australia, the result of disagreements on nuclear policy in the Pacific and decolonisation in New Caledonia. Drawing on personal recollections and retrospective assessments by Bill Hayden and unpublished material specially released by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs, the investigation challenges certain idées reçues.

Keywords: Bill Hayden, Minister for Foreign Affairs, New Caledonia, decolonisation, French-Australian relations, nuclear testing, Rainbow Warrior

BOOK REVIEWS

John Dunmore, trans. & ed., The Pacific Journal of Louis-Antoine de Bougainville 1767-1768, reviewed by Edward Duyker

Philippe Godard & Tugdual de Kerros, Louis de Saint Aloüarn, Lieutenant des vaisseaux du Roy: un marin breton à la conquête des Terres Australes, reviewed by Edward Duyker

Voyage of Discovery to the Southern Lands: Second Edition, 1824. Book IV, comprising chapters XXII to XXXIX by François Piron; continued by Louis Freycinet, translated by Christine Cornell, reviewed by Edward Duyker