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Mayer W., Geological investigations by French scientists in Australia and Antarctica, 1792-1840

Geological observations and investigations by French scientists and naturalists in Australia and Antarctica, 1792-1840 Wolf Mayer* *Emeritus Faculty, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2615, Australia; [email protected] Over a period of almost 50 years, eight French expeditions visited Australia over periods ranging from weeks to as long as two years. The main objectives of their visits included the search for the missing La Pérouse (Bruny d’Entrecasteaux,1792), the charting of the yet unknown coasts of the continent (Nicolas Baudin,1801–1803) and determining the position of the South magnetic pole (Dumont d’Urville,1840). Common to the mission of each expedition was the acquisition of knowledge of the country’s natural history and the collection of specimens. Only one of the expeditions numbered university educated geologists among its scientific personnel. On others, the task of recording geological observations and the collection of specimens was performed by botanists, zoologists or, more often, by surgeons, all of whom had an interest in and, in some cases, a considerable knowledge of geology. The first government geological surveys and universities in Australia were not established until the second half of the nineteenth century. Earlier investigations into the geology and mineral deposits in the colonies of New South Wales and Tasmania, fell largely to local observers, several of whom were clergymen, with a wide interest in nature and its products. However, it was the scientific personnel on board the ships of the visiting French expeditions, whose surveys of large parts of Australia’s coastal regions gave European readers the most detailed insight yet into the country’s geological constitution. The last of these French expeditions used Hobart Town in Tasmania as a base to sail to Antarctica. Small teams from its two ships were the first to land on an ice-free part of the southern continent and to collect rock samples.