When you are Canberra, don’t miss the opportunity to take the Early Explorers Walking Tour in the Inner South area of the city (Griffith and Red Hill). Take a good look at the street names – which early explorers do you recognise? The Early Explorers Walking Tour was an initiative by local residents and Australia[…]
The book “EARLY ENCOUNTERS WITH AUSTRALIAN SHORES” containing 14 easy read stories by the late Rupert Gerritsen, published by AOTM in July 2015, can now be ordered by sending a stamped self addressed envelope large enough to contain a b5 size booklet, with $3.00 ($5.00 for two) in stamps on (for destinations within Australia) ,[…]
In 2015 we will commemorate the end of the Second World War. We will be invited to attend the ceremonies or watch on TV as the lines of be-medalled people march by. The authorities will organise them, and millions of dollars have been allocated to be spent on the commemoration in its various forms. It[…]
Rupert Gerritsen passed away in Canberra on 3 November 2013. He was Chair of ‘Australia on the Map’ (AOTM), the Heritage and History Division of the Australasian Hydrographic Society (AHS). He wrote a number of books, many scientific papers and reports and played an influential part in re-charting Australia’s maritime contact history prior to British[…]
The Freycinet map was published in Paris in 1811, and was the first map to be published which showed the full outline of Australia as such, preceding Matthew Flinders’ map ‘Terra Australis or Australia’ by three years. The Freycinet map was the product of centuries of the charting of Australia’s coasts by Dutch, English and French[…]
Emeritus Professor Margaret Sankey Professor Margaret Sankey’s research career in French Studies has been devoted to the study of the history of ideas and mentalités in France, with particular reference to the early modern period and the scientific revolution. She has published extensively in key areas of interest: Cyrano de Bergerac’s novels and the transmission of[…]
His Excellency M. Michel Filhol Clausewitz said that “war was politics by other means.” Hydrography too, at least at the turn of the 19th century, was politics by other means. The case of Freycinet/Flinders is a perfect illustration. Today, the echoes are muffled. Muffled but not totally silenced, so that we can imagine the vivacity of[…]
Vice Admiral Chris Ritchie AO RANR Today’s symposium to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of the first map of Australia has been arranged through the good offices of the French Embassy here in Canberra, the National Library of Australia and the Australia on the Map Division of the Australasian Hydrographic Society. We are[…]