Australasia

Bougainville and Tahiti

Arnold Whitridge describes how, in April 1768, Bougainville reached ‘an enchanting island’ in the South Pacific.

Easter Island

No memorials of the past are more fantastic than the series of great statues—some of them as tall as a four-storey building—that greet the visitor to this lonely and storm-swept Pacific island. By C.A. Burland.

Tonga: The Last of the Victorians

By tradition the Tongan kingdom has been established for over 13,000 years; but one of its contemporary faces is distinctly Victorian, as discussed here by George Woodcock.

The Convict Settlement of Australia

Roderick Cameron explains how, during the 50 years that followed Governor Phillip’s landing at Botany Bay in 1788, convicts and free settlers turned New South Wales into a flourishing colony.

First Europeans in Australia

Who discovered Australia? Most people think of the First Fleet that went to Botany Bay 1788, but our ideas may require rethinking, following recent research on DNA analysis, and epidemiological studies of a rare disease.