The Race to Unveil Southern New Holland: The French and British Contribution to Scientific Exploration in Australia in the Age of Enlightenment and Early Romantic Period 1791–1803

Abstract

(from a lecture sponsored by the Western Australian Library Foundation, Australian Institute of Cartographers, Institution of Surveyors (Australia), Hydrographic Society and the Institution of Engineering and Mining Surveyors) Copyright. Leslie R. Marchant 1994 Not to be copied and distributed without the express permission of the author. The southern coast of Australia remained unknown and incompletely surveyed until 1802; more than thirty years after Cook surveyed part of the Pacific coast. This article describes how bit by bit, the gaps of knowledge were filled in by British and French explorers in a tumultuous era which saw the end of the Age of Enlightenment and the emergence of the Romantic Period. France, which had been the leading power in the European Enlightenment, made the longest and most sustained effort to reveal the mysteries on the southern coast. France dispatched six scientific expeditions compared to five by Britain. However, Bass and Hinders (Britain) made the major discoveries-Bass St...