EVENT CANCELLED: Our deepest apologies but this event has been cancelled. Refunds have been sent to those who have already bought tickets. We apologise for the disappointment and inconvenience.
For more than two centuries, France and Australia have forged strong links. Between 1772 and 1827, no fewer than nine French scientific expeditions explored the Australian coastline. French scientists drew maps, studied flora and fauna, and opened up to the Aborigines. In the century that followed, Australians and French shed their blood side by side in two world wars. From Saint-Aloüarn, who took possession of Australia for Louis XV at Shark Bay (Western Australia) in 1772, to the scientists of the Baudin expedition who drew up a plan for Napoleon's invasion of Sydney, to Dumont d'Urville, who explored King George Sound (now Albany) to make Western Australia a French colony, France and England have always competed for possession of the island continent. Starting with the famous painting of Lapérouse unfolding the map of his expedition in front of Louis XVI, with his hand pointing to Australia, this lecture tells the long story of this race with its many twists and turns.

Join us for this free webinar, our first co-presentation with the National Archives of Australia for 2025.
This preservation and records handling webinar will provide practical advice for family historians and small records collections.

Murchison & District Historical Society wants to develop an orientation/training programme for young people - i.e. 14 - 18yo's - to become volunteers for their historical society. The RHSV thinks that this idea is worth putting effort into and seeing if we can develop a template that can be adopted by many historical societies. To facilitate this I’ve organised a Zoom meeting for 11am Tuesday 4 February 2025 for everyone interested to get together and share ideas and experiences and to work out what can be done. So please do join Kay and I on Zoom and bring your ideas and enthusiasm and we'll see what we can nut out together.

Join the curator, Dr Judith Buckrich, of our current exhibition Yarra Birrarung: Artists, Writers and the River in a behind-the-scenes talk about the exhibition. The exhibition is an illustrated history of life on the Yarra. Through the lens of artists and writers, the exhibition explores how life has flourished on the river, including recreation, industry and land use, as well as infrastructure, natural history and social history.