Perceptions

Map of Oceania (Océanie), showing Australia, with insets depicting Australian vegetation zones, relief, and a comparison with the size of France. The map was produced by famous French geographers Jean Brunhes (1869-1930) and his student Pierre Deffontaines (1894-1978), probably in the 1920s (Deffontaines studied with Brunhes 1922-25). Published by Librairie Hatier in Paris, the map was possibly used on classroom walls. The map shows us that from the French perspective, with their possessions in the Pacific Islands and Indo-China (Indochine Française), Queensland and Australia as a whole were considered part of 'Oceania', a word not commonly used at that time in Australia itself. Brisbane is shown as connected by shipping lines to Fiji (Iles Viti), and from there to Hawaii and San Francisco, and to Batavia (now Jakarta) and Singapore, while another line from Bundaberg or Gladstone connects Queensland to New Caledonia.