Tasmania
Place: Northeast Peninsula of Recherché Bay,including the French Garden and Observatory
Threat: Damage and destruction

Significance of Place
These sites of the only identified relics of the French exploration of Tasmania, prior to European settlement, are of national significance to Australia and France. They provide evidence of the enormous scientific interest these hitherto uncharted lands held for Europeans in the late 18th century. The D’Encastereaux expedition was the largest and best-equipped scientific expedition dispatched from France in the 18th century.

Although its original purpose was to search for the missing explorer, La Perouse, the expedition was fitted out with scientific instruments, and was accompanied by a selection of the finest available scientists. In its two landfalls in Recherché Bay in 1792 and 1793, they made substantial scientific observations, and collected the first significant botanical specimens of Tasmanian species. The botanists Labillardiere, Riche and Ventenat collected, catalogued and preserved hundreds of specimens of fl ora and fauna hitherto unknown in Europe, including the Tasmanian Blue Gum (later the Tasmanian state emblem). This collection then formed the foundation for Labillardiere’s Novae Hollandiae Plantarum Specimen (1804-1806), considered to be the first general Flora of Australia, and formed the basis for the Australian garden planted for Empress Josephine at Malmaison.

Observations taken by the astronomer Rossel made a world breakthrough in geo-magnetism advancing global navigation, and the hydrographers charted previously unknown areas of the coast. A garden and an observatory were established and friendly contact made with local people of the Lyluequonny tribe during their second stay. The Peninsula is thus one of the earliest and most significant Aboriginal contact sites in Australia. The detailed expedition diaries record all these activities, and have been able to be used with remarkable accuracy to indicate the location and appearance of the structures they established.

Description of Threat
These sites form part of a complex forested landscape which is slated for destruction. Although the identified French sites themselves may not be destroyed, present logging proposals propose leaving only remnants of forest around designated sites. This would destroy the remarkable nature of this wooded landscape which presents almost identically from the water as it did to the French scientists 200 years ago.

The Peninsula has been nominated to the National Heritage List, and an application has been accepted for its listing under the Tasmanian Cultural Heritage Act 1995 as an area of cultural significance. Despite this, no commitment has been made by the Tasmanian or the Commonwealth governments to fund the substantial archaeological surveys required to ensure that all key sites are identified prior to the approval of any construction or logging.

The Tasmanian Heritage Council has supported the Listing, and a 2-year moratorium on development was agreed. However, permission has been sought (but is currently subject to court action) to continue the logging access road across the Southport Lagoon Conservation Area. Any road construction, or logging, prior to a complete archaeological survey would risk destroying this complex, multilayered and significant site.

Further Action Required
This is a unique cultural landscape, requiring the highest level of protection and preservation, and for this reason the Trust is again nominating it as an Endangered Place. The whole peninsula should be protected by Tasmanian Heritage Council listing, and a heritage agreement under the Historic Cultural Heritage Act be established.