French Navigators
The Baudin expedition (1801)
England and France were at war when two men, Nicolas Baudin (1754-1803) and Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) separately approached their respective governments with proposals for discovering the unknown southern coast of Australia. This was the last piece of the puzzle that would prove whether or not the great south land was one continent or two or more large islands.
In 1800, with the approval of Napoleon, then First Consul, a two-ship expedition left France to confirm the discoveries made by Saint-Aloüarn nearly 30 years earlier, accumulate scientific knowledge about the region, and chart the coastline. The two ships employed were Le Géographe under Baudin and the slower Le Naturaliste under J.F.Emmanuel Hamelin. The expedition was heavily staffed with scientists, including François Péron. The expedition's surveyor was Louis Freycinet.
The expedition then proceeded to Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), gathering large collection of specimens and making many important observations of the local Aborigines. It was not until late March 1802 that Baudin left Tasmania's shores and sailed north west to the Unknown Coast.
At King Island Le Naturaliste left the expedition and returned to France with the specimens and collections gathered to that time, and Le Géographe and another ship Casuarina continued in company.
Later in March 1803, Le Geographe and Casuarina passed by Rottnest on their way eventually back to France, but did not stop longer than a day or two. Both ships then explored the north-west coast of Australia, before returning to Mauritius via Timor. Nicolas Baudin, who had been ill for much of the voyage, died there on 16 September 1803. The expedition's account was written by the scientific officer, François Péron and after his early death, was completed by Louis Freycinet. The first volume of text was published in 1807 and the general chart in the same year.
French names were given to the entire southern coastline, despite Flinders's prior discovery of much of it. Both Péron and Freycinet changed the original names given by Baudin:
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Geographe Bay, 30.5.1801: Baudin. Named after the expedition vessel, Geographe.
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Vasse Estuary, 30.5.1801: Baudin. Named after 3rd class seaman, Thomas Timothe Vasse of survey vessel Naturaliste, who was marooned here. Vasse was a helmsman second class and, by all accounts, an excellent seaman. He was dumped by a wave during a storm, disappeared without trace and was presumed drowned. Baudin later revisited the area hoping to find trace of Vasse but missed the spot and sailed on. The Vasse River behind the present town of Busselton and the Wonnerup Inlet was named 'Riviere Vasse' after seaman Vasse in 1801. In 1834 some Aborigines showed British settlers the grave of a white man who they said used to spend his days gazing out to sea waiting for his ship to return. It seems that this man was Vasse and he was waiting for the return of Baudin in the Geographe.
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Cape Naturaliste / Naturaliste Reef, 31.5.1801: Baudin. Named after the expendition vessel, Naturaliste.
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Point Piquet, 31.5.1801: Baudin. Named after Furcy Piquet, officer of the expendition vessel, Geographe.
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Hamelin Bay / Cape Hamelin / Hamelin Isld 31.5.1801:, Baudin. Named after the master of Naturaliste, Emmanuel Hamelin.
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Point Peron, 18.6.1801: Baudin. Named after expedition naturalist, Francois Peron, of the expedition corvette, Naturaliste.
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Lancelin Isld, 12.7.1801. Baudin. Named after PF Lancelin, scientific writer, author of the World Map of Sciences and works on the planetary system and analyses of science.
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Frenchman Bay, Named Ronsard Bay by Baudin, 17.7.1801, after Francois Melchesadek Rondard, seaman of survey vessel Naturaliste.
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Jurien Bay, 21.7.1801. Baudin. Named after Charles Mare Vicomte du Jurien (1763-1836), Commander of the French Navy. He served through the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and became a peer under Louis Philippe.
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Depuch Cove 1801 Baudin names after the mineralogist Louis Depuch on Le Géographe.
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Cape Clairault, 2.2.1803, Baudin. Named after Alexis Claude Clairault, (right) French mathematician (1713-1765).
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Cape Freycinet, 2.2.1803, Baudin. Named after Henri-Louis de Saulses de Freycinet, brother of Louis de Freycinet, master, Casuarina. Henri was a sub lieutenant.
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Becher Pt, 2.2.1803, Baudin. Named after a crew member of the Casuarina.
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Cape Bouvard, 2.2.1803, Baudin. Named after Alexis Bouvard (1787-1843), a French astronomer who discovered comets not long before Baudin's expedition left for Australia.
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Cape Leschenault, 2.2.1803, Baudin. Named after Jean Baptiste Louis Claude Leschenault de la Tour, botanist of survey vessel Geographe.
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Cape Mentelle, 4.2.1803, Baudin. Named after Edme Mentelle (1730-1815), French geographer, historian and leading French cartographer of his day.
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and many more...
If you want to know more about the race to map Australia between Baudin and Flinders, we do recommend this documentatry by ABC:
The passage to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean was slow and placed the expedition badly behind schedule. The WA coast was examined first, to take advantage of the prevailing winds.
On May 27th 1801, the expedition sighted Cape Leeuwin. They sailed up the coast, and on June 4th 1801 set anchor for the fourth occasion in Geographe Bay.
While the Geographe continued northwards, the Naturaliste remained for a few weeks. A small expedition dragged longboats over the sand bar and explored the Swan River. They also gave unfavourable descriptions regarding any potential settlement due to many mud flats upstream and the sand bar (the sand bar wasn't removed until the 1890s when C. Y. O'Connor built Fremantle harbour).
Although Dutch explorers had travelled up the Swan River as far as the site of Perth in 1697, it was not until the French expedition of 1801 that Europeans reached the Swan Valley.
François Antoine Boniface Hérisson, a French mariner and cartographer, who explored the Swan River (Riviere de Cygnes) in June 1801. Louis de Freycinet named Hérisson Iles, now Heirisson Island, after him.
He explored the Swan River from 17 to 22 June 1801 with orders to chart the river to establish whether the river could be used as a convenient port of call for vessels as well as to search for sources of fresh water. Heiresson and Lieutenant Freycinet had travelled inland and a great distance up the Swan River before finding fresh water.
Heirisson skippered a longboat up the Swan River, past where modern Perth now stands, well into Middle Swan’s wine region, and drew the first recognisably modern chart of the Swan River. It is now held in the Battye Library.
Le Géographe and Le Naturaliste
From an original painting by John Ford F.A.S.M.A.
It was during a trip to Dirk Hartog Island that Hamelin discovered the plate left by Willem de Vlamingh in 1697. The Naturaliste's men found the Vlamingh plate lying in the sand, where it had fallen from the post. They recognised its importance and immediately brought it back for Hamelin to examine. In objecting to the notion that the plate be removed to France, and in considering that to do otherwise would have been historical 'vandalism', Hamelin had Vlamingh's plate and a plate of his own re-erected on new posts, the first at the Dutch explorer's site and the second at an as yet undetermined location.
Vlamingh plate
The first detailed map of the Swan River, drawn by the French in 1801
Although Baudin’s scientists concentrated on exploring Bernier Island north of Shark Bay, Hamelin found that Middle Island, referred to by both Dampier and Saint-Aloüarn, was in fact a peninsula that he named Péron Peninsula.
Hamelin also charted Shark Bay, having entered by the channel north of Dirk Hartog Island, Naturaliste Channel, and conducted a very thorough exploration of the large bay and its extremely indented coastline.
New Holland map by Freycinet (1808), zoomed on South West Australia
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Welcome to our WA French Explorations' section. We have collected information from Wikipedia and Dorothy Reid thesis (available here). We are not experts, neither historians, only some French people leaving in Perth and interested in WA history in relation to France.
We have broken down the French exporators in WA facinating story into the following chapters:
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