A CELEBRATION OF THE HISTORY, CULTURE, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF RECHERCHE BAY
CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research Auditorium Hobart, Tasmania
26–28 February 2007

From the hills of Provence to the coast of Van Diemen’s Land: The expedition of Joseph-Antoine Bruny d’Entrecasteaux (1791-1793/4)
Professor Alan Frost, FAHA, FRHistS

Alan Frost holds a Personal Chair in History at La Trobe University, Melbourne. A major theme of his research has involved the European exploration of the Pacific Ocean over the second half of the eighteenth century. He is the author of (among many other works) Convicts and Empire (1980), Arthur Phillip, 1738-1814: His Voyaging (1987); Botany Bay Mirages (1994); The Voyage of the Endeavour (1998); and The Global Reach of Empire (2003). In 1987, as a prelude to the Australian Academy of the Humanities' major Bicentennial conference, he organised a conference at the Château d’Entrecasteaux, Provence, on European Voyaging towards Australia. He is presently engaged in collecting and editing the documents relating to the British decision to colonise New South Wales.

Given that one of its purposes was to search for the missing Lapérouse, and that it broke up before it returned to France, the expedition of Joseph-Antoine Bruny d’Entrecasteaux (1791-1793/4) has usually be seen as secondary to those of James Cook (1768-1771, 1772-1775, 1776-1780), Jean-François de Galaup de Lapérouse (1785-1788), Alejandro Malaspina (1789-1794) and George Vancouver (1791-1795).

However, Entrecasteaux’s expedition was a major undertaking in its own right, one meant to rival, if not to surpass, those of these other explorers. Mounted at a time when the modern scientific disciplines were emerging from the older umbrella of ‘natural history’, this expedition carried more than twenty scientists, including botanists, zoologists, mineralogists, astronomers and geographers (and artists, draughtsmen and a gardener as well). This scientific complement was a good deal larger than that of Lapérouse’s expedition.

The major aim to the Entrecasteaux expedition was to extend the collection of scientific data, including charting still unknown coastlines, charting the stars of the southern hemisphere, and developing a comprehensive method of nautical cartography. The expedition was to report on the climate, fertility and resources of countries visited, and the possibilities of extending trade. There was also a particular emphasis on ethnography – in particular, the culture of indigenous peoples and their relations with Europeans.

While they were lost sight of in the catastrophic end of the expedition in the East Indies, and in British authorities’ retaining possession of its data for fourteen years, there were some notable outcomes from Entrecasteaux’s expedition. In time, the botanist La Billardière built the largest herbarium in Europe; Rossel published a definitive treatise on astronomical navigation; Beautemps-Beaupré refined the practice of cartography; and there were very significant ethnographic observations of the Tasmanian Aborigines.