The French explorers and the aboriginal Australians, 1772-1839

Abstract

This is the introduction to The French Explorers and the Aboriginal Australians, 1772-1839 by Colin Dyer. This highly readable account opens a fascinating window - and a fresh perspective - on the early European exploration of Australia. These French explorers and scientists kept journals, many of which, until very recently, remained obscure and untranslated. Their cultural insights are invaluable, sometimes shocking and always engaging. Here are to be found detailed descriptions of the Aboriginal peoples' physical appearances, their clothing, nutrition, dwellings, fires, canoes and utensils along with attempts to understand their character and language. The Aboriginal observers, however, displayed an equally keen anthropological interest in these strange apparitions arriving on their shores. Turning the cultural telescope around, this volume provides an unexpected and revealing glimpse of the French travellers through Aboriginal eyes. This book, and its illustrations, has drawn extensively on the collections of Fryer Library at the University of Queensland.