Recherche Bay

Recherche Bay is located on the extreme south-eastern corner of Tasmania, Australia and was a landing place of the d’Entrecasteaux expedition to find missing explorer La Pérouse. It is named after one of the expedition's ships.

The explorers setup a camp, made a garden and scientific observatory at Recherche Bay in April 1792 for 26 days, and again in January 1793 for 24 days.ref|dates Both landings were made to seek refuge and replenish supplies although as much time as possible was dedicated to scientific research. The botanists Jacques Labillardière, Claude Riche and Étienne Pierre Ventenat collected and catalogued almost 5000 specimens including the blue gum ("Eucalyptus globulus") which later became Tasmania's floral emblem. The expedition also made friendly contact with the Tasmanian Aboriginal people here in 1793.

The scientific observatory at Recherche Bay was the site of the first deliberate scientific experiment on Australian soil. At this observatory, geoscientist Elisabeth P.E. de Rosse conducted a series of measurements that proved geomagnetism varied with latitude.ref|geomagnetism

Being isolated from the main areas of early settlement, exposed to easterly gales, and the terrain and soils of a nature that discouraged European agriculture, Recherche Bay saw only moderate activity following the British settlement of Van Diemens Land. During the 1830s and 1840s it was the site of a bay whaling station as as well as a base for pilots guiding ships up the D'Entrecasteaux Channel. Whaling ships occasionally sheltered there to try out whales, two (the "Maria Orr" in 1846 and "Offley" in 1880) being wrecked there in gales. The main commercial activities in the later 1800s and into the early 1900s were timber-gathering, mostly centred around the township of Leprena and coal mining, the latter mostly based around the township of Catamaran. The Catamaran Coal Company employed the former barque "James Craig" as a coal hulk there.

In 2003, the private landowners of the D'Entrentrecasteaux expedition site sought permission to selectively log the area resulting in a large-scale campaign to protect the site from destruction.

In January 2006, the Tasmanian Land Conservancy announced plans to raise a minimum of $1.3 million to purchase the site from its private owners.ref|purchase High profile businessman Dick Smith has pledged AU$100,000 to the cause.ref|dicksmith

References

* [http://www.nationaltrust.org.au/pdfs/0315.pdf National Trust Endangered Places 2003] accessed on January 5, 2006.
* [http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/recherche/information.html Australian National Heritage listing for Recherche Bay] accessed on July 9, 2008.
* [http://www.themercury.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,17877405%255E3462,00.html Bid to Buy Recherche] accessed on January 20, 2006.
* [http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200601/s1553087.htm Dick Smith joins bid to protect Recherche Bay] accessed on January 24, 2006.

Further Reading

*Bob Brown, Tasmania’s Recherche Bay, Published by Green Institute, GPO Box 927, Hobart, Tasmania, 7001, 2005, pp. 56, illustrations, maps, ISBN 0 646 44899 4

*Edward Duyker & Maryse Duyker (ed. & trans) Bruny d’Entrecasteaux: Voyage to Australia and the Pacific 1791—1793, Miegunyah/Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 2001, pp. xliii, pp. 392, ISBN 0 522 84932 6 [paperback edition, March 2006, ISBN 0 522 85232 7 ]

*Edward Duyker, Citizen Labillardière: A Naturalist’s Life in Revolution and Exploration (1755-1834), Miegunyah/MUP, Melbourne, 2003, ISBN 0 522 85010 3, Paperback reprint, 2004, pp. 383, ISBN 0 522 85160 6, [Winner, NSW Premier’s General History Prize, 2004] .

*Edward Duyker,‘A French Garden in Tasmania: The Legacy of Félix Delahaye (1767—1829)’, Explorations, December 2004 (issued October 2005), pp. 3—18.

*Edward Duyker, ‘Uncovering Jean Piron: In Search of d’Entrecasteaux’s Artist’, Explorations, December 2005 (issued June 2006), pp. 37—45.

*John Mulvaney & Hugh Tyndale-Biscoe (eds.), Rediscovering Recherche Bay, Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, Canberra, December 2007, ISBN 9780908290222, paperback, pp. 156,

*John Mulvaney, The axe had never sounded’: Place, People and Heritage of Recherche Bay, Tasmania, ANU E Press and Aboriginal History, Canberra, 2007, ISBN 9781921313202 (pbk.).

* Bruce Poulson, Recherche Bay: A Short History, Published by the Management Committee of the Southport Community Centre, Main Road, Southport, 7109, second edition 2005, pp. 83, illustrations, bibliography, maps, ISBN 09757950-6

External links

* [http://www.recherchebay.org/information/index.html RechercheBay.org]
* [http://www.tasland.org.au/ Tasmanian Land Conservancy]
* [http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s978915.htm Catalyst story on Recherche Bay]
* [http://http://epress.anu.edu.au/aborig_history/axe/html/frames.php 'The Axe had never sounded']