This project was conceived by French Consul General Eric Berti, whose term in Australia is nearing its end. It has attracted strong support from ISFAR (Institute for the Study French-Australian Relations) and its journal The French Australian Review (previously Explorations), as well as a Melbourne publisher, Nick Walker, of Australian Scholarly Publishing.
The book (approx. 450 pages) is expected to appear some time in May 2015, at a recommended retail price of $39. It is currently offered at the pre-publication price of $25 per copy (or $20 per copy for wholesale orders of twenty copies or more). Postage to anywhere in Australia is $13.40 but copies ordered during the pre-publication period can be collected from the French consulates in Sydney or Melbourne or from the French embassy in Canberra. It can be ordered via ISFAR by writing to french.australian.review@gmail.com
CONTENT OF FRENCH LIVES IN AUSTRALIA
S.E. CHRISTOPHE LECOURTIER, AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE, Foreword
ERIC BERTI Introduction
EDWARD DUYKER on Père Receveur and botanist Labillardière
JOHN WEST-SOOBY, JEAN FORNASIERO and MARGARET SANKEY on Nicolas Baudin
KENNETH DUTTON on Francis Barrallier, surveyor and cartographer
NEVILLE POTTER on Nicolas Rossi, superintendent of police
MICHEL REYMOND on Joseph Bernard Reymond, rural pioneer
ROSLYN MAGUIRE on Didier Joubert, pioneer of Hunters Hill
JACQUELINE DWYER on Georges Playoust, wool-buyer
JOHN DRURY on Berthe Mouchette, founder of the Melbourne Alliance française and artist, and on her sister Marie Lion, artist
GEOFFROY de LASSUS on Charles Phalempin, founder of the French bank in Australia
DIANNE REILLY on Comte Lionel de Chabrillan, the first French Consul in Melbourne, and on Antoine-Julien Fauchery, miner and photographer
WALLACE KIRSOP on Francis de Castelnau, scientist and consul general
ERIC BERTI on Georges Biard, consul general of France in Sydney
PATRICIA CLANCY on Céleste de Chabrillan, courtesan, consul’s wife and author
ELAINE LEWIS on Léon Caron, conductor, composer and violinist
MAURICE BLACKMAN on Paul Wenz, author and grazier
ERIC BERTI on Jacques Playoust, French-Australian poilu
PETER BROWN on Augustine Soubeiran, educator and WW1 fund-raiser
COLIN NETTELBECK on Charlotte Crivelli, WW1 fund-raiser
MARGARET BARRETT on André Brenac, Leader of the Free French in Australia
STEPHANIE ANDERSON on Narcisse Pelletier, the castaway
TOM LOCKLEY and ERIC BERTI on Maurice Guillaux, aviation pioneer
CAROLE ROUSSEL on Pierre Roussel, Founder of the Botany Bay Lapérouse Museum
IVAN BARKO and COLIN NETTELBECK, Afterword
IVAN BARKO and ERIC BERTI, List of French Consuls and Ambassadors in Australia (1842–2015)