Description
The first published map, solely devoted to the Brisbane River, showing the results of John Oxley’s exploration and surveys made in 1823.
A rare finely engraved, large scale chart of the Brisbane .
In 1823, Governor Brisbane sent John Oxley north by boat in search of a site for an alternative penal settlement for the most difficult convicts.
As Surveyor General, Oxley made a close examination of the Tweed River and Port Curtis. He then sailed north from the Tweed Area in the Mermaid, rounding Moreton Island, he came across two escaped convicts who had been living with the Aboriginal people. With their assistance, he was shown, and named, the Brisbane River. On his return to Sydney in December 1823 he recommend this place for the site of the convict settlement, which later became known as Moreton Bay, and later the city of Brisbane. He then travelled further north to explore Port Curtis (the site of Gladstone) and continued to explore the region.
Louis-Isidore Duperrey led the Coquille’s global expedition (1822–1825), with Jules Dumont d’Urville as second-in-command. René-Primevère Lesson, a naval doctor and naturalist, also joined the voyage. Upon their return in March 1825, Dumont and Lesson brought an extensive collection of flora and fauna from the Falkland Islands, Chile, Peru, the Pacific archipelagos, New Zealand, New Guinea, and Australia to France. Duperrey’s was one of the major French Pacific voyages of the nineteenth century. As the leader of this expedition, he had already circumnavigated the globe under Freycinet and with Dumont-d’Urville, who would later lead his own expeditions. Duperrey was second-in-command, and Rene Lesson was the naturalist of the voyage. The Coquille called at Brazil, the Falkland Islands, Concepcion, Callao, and Payta. In the Pacific, the ship visited the Tuamotu Archipelago, Tahiti and the Society Islands, Tonga, Rotuma, the Gilbert and Caroline Islands, and the Bismarck Archipelago. Australia was visited twice, and the explorations made of New Zealand and the Maori culture were particularly significant. Vast quantities of ethnographic and scientific data were collected. Before returning to Marseilles, Java, Mauritius, and Ascension were visite. (Hill 517).
Duperrey’s charts provide a detailed and careful record of numerous islands and island groups in the South Pacific not previously charted, making the hydrographical atlas an outstanding cartographic work for the Pacific. Wantrup, ( 2023 2nd. ed. Vol. II, p.647.)
From: Duperrey, Louis-Isidore, Voyage autour du Monde, execute per ordre du Roi, sur la Corvette La Coquille de sa Majeste, pendant les annies 1822, 1823, 1824 et 1825. Hydrographie Atlas
