Explorations – No 39 Dec 2005

(issued June 2006)

IVAN BARKO, Foreword

KENNETH R. DUTTON, A Colonial Entrepreneur: François Girard (1792?-1859)

Kenneth Dutton’s substantial paper is devoted to the life of François Girard, an early French settler and successful businessman in New South Wales. His activities centered on Sydney and the Northern Rivers. As was the case with so many of his contemporaries, Girard’s business career was not without tribulations, thus illustrating the volatility of conditions in the young colony. The Girard story was going to be told jointly by Professor Dutton and Harry Morris, a descendant of François Girard, who at the time was working on a family history, but sadly Harry Morris passed away early during the project and so this study is dedicated to his memory.

Keywords: François Girard, French settler, New South Wales, colony, Harry Morris

EDWARD DUYKER, Uncovering Jean Piron: In Search of d’Entrecasteaux’s Artist

Edward Duyker’s study of Jean Piron, the artist with d’Entrecasteaux’s expedition in the closing decade of the eighteenth century, follows his biography of the naturalist Labillardiere. This article will appear almost simultaneously with Francois Péron — An Impetuous Life: Naturalist and Voyager, an important and much-awaited study for the Miegunyah Press of one of the senior figures of the Baudin expedition. The Piron article is a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the life and achievements of an artist who is insufficiently known as well as an object lesson in archival research.

Keywords: Jean Piron, d’Entrecasteaux expedition, Labillardière, Baudin expedition, eighteenth century.

BOOK REVIEWS

Kerry Greenwood, Murder in Montparnasse, reviewed by John Ramslan

Explorations – No 35 Dec 2003

(issued August 2004)

IVAN BARKO, Foreword

VALERIE LHUEDÉ, Francis Barrallier, Explorer, Surveyor, Engineer, Artillery Officer, Aide-de-Camp, Architect and Ship Designer: Three Years in New South Wales (1800-1803)

A major article by Valerie Lhuedé on Francis Barrallier, a protégé of Governor Philip King and more importantly a man of many talents, whose three years in the Colony were extraordinarily productive. The author is the grand-daughter of a Breton sailor and an architect by profession. She part-owns and has a
passionate interest in the old silver-mining village of Yerranderie in the area of the Blue Mountains first explored by Barrallier.

Keywords: Francis Barrallier, New South Wales, Yerranderie, Governor Philip King, nineteenth century, explorer

IVAN BARKO, “Le petit Condé”: the Death in Sydney in 1866 of Australia’s First Royal Visitor

This article recounts the little-known story of the young Louis d’Orléans’ visit to and death in Sydney in 1866. The prince, aged twenty, was almost certainly the first royal visitor to Australia and he was the last prince of the house of Condé.

Keywords: Le petit Condé, Louis d’Orléans, royal visitor

JANE SOUTHWOOD & EDWARD DUYKER, Frank Benson Horner (1917-2004). Obituary

BOOK REVIEWS

Victor Barker, Baudin’s Last Breath, reviewed by Edward Duyker

Stuart Macintyre and Richard Selleck, A Short History of the University of Melbourne, reviewed by Edward Duyker