La Recherche and L'Espérance land in Recherche…
January 1793 CE
La Recherche and L'Espérance land in Recherche Bay again in January 1793 for twenty-four days.
Both landings have been made to seek refuge and replenish supplies, although as much time as possible is dedicated to scientific research.
The botanists Jacques Labillardière, Claude Riche and Étienne Pierre Ventenat, assisted by gardener botanist Félix Delahaye, collect and catalogue almost five thousand specimens including the blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus), which will later become Tasmania's floral emblem.
The expedition also makes friendly contact with the Tasmanian Aboriginal people here in 1793.
The scientific observatory at Recherche Bay is the site of the first deliberate scientific experiment on Australian soil.
At this observatory, expedition navigator Elisabeth-Paul-Edouard de Rossel conducts a series of measurements that prove geomagnetism varies with latitude.