Connect with NGV
2 June – 7 October 2012
10am–5pm daily, until 9pm Wednesdays
NGV International, 180 St Kilda Road

Discovering The New World

In the mid eighteenth century the Pacific Ocean was, for most Europeans, a vast unexplored void.... Read more

La Pérouse

Inspired by the voyages of Captain Cook, King Louis XVI appointed Jean-François de Galaup, Comte de La Pérouse... Read more

Flinders & Baudin

Scientific curiosity, commercial interests and politics motivated further exploration of the South... Read more

Captain Cook

In 1766 the Royal Society of London put forward a proposal to journey South.... Read more

Voyage Map

Supported by Napoleon, Nicolas Baudin led an expedition to discover more of the southern land mass – specifically to chart the unknown southern coast of New Holland.... Read more

Exploration & Discovery

It is said that history is written by the victors: the collapse of French Empire along with Napoleon’s reign and the victory of the English have obscured the remarkable story of the French exploration of Australia. Numerous expeditions, dating from the time of Louis XV and Louis XVI in the middle of the eighteenth century to the most well-documented and ambitious expedition to Terre Australe by Nicolas Baudin in 1800-1804, placed France in the forefront of both geographical and scientific exploration of Australia. French documentation of Australia’s Indigenous people, the botanical and zoological descriptions and drawings and collecting of specimens resulted in the most remarkable body of knowledge of its time – they were the first to make known the richness and diversity of life in this country.