When, on the 13th of June 1820, Rose de Freycinet stepped ashore for the second time in Rio de Janeiro, she became just the second women to make a complete circuit of the globe. The Australian author Suzanne Falkiner has recognised the need for a biography and has filled it with a handsome volume simply entitled Rose.
Between 1967 and 1913 aeromagnetic surveys were flown over eastern Papua New Guinea, but the results only became available during the country’s transition to full independence. Overlooked at the time, they now seem to have been largely forgotten
The Internet is a treasure trove for the early publications on the Uranie voyage but, like all good hidden treasures, there are many obstacles to their retrieval. Digital images of the volumes of the ‘Voyage autour du Monde’ can be found, but quality is very variable and not all volumes are easy to find. There are, moreover, some issues surrounding the contents of the various volumes and their the dates of publication.
In early 1963 Australia’s Bureau of Mineral Resources, the BMR. carried out the first airborne proton magnetometer survey in the country, using the instrument designed and largely built by John Newman.
Rose de Freycinet sent letters to her mother on every occasion when there was some prospect of their reaching France, up to and including the stay in Sydney. She continued to write after that, but we know this only because she mentioned sending a letter from the Falklands in her diary. A copy of a letter from her to her parennts-in-law sent at the same time has survived.
In one respect it seems that Ayn Rand was ahead of her time; she anticipated fracking. However, tor onshore fracking to make the UK self-sufficient in gas, some two thousand wells would have to be drilled every year. Could this be realised in our tight little island?