Documenting France’s Contribution to the Exploration of Australia

French maritime exploration in the Indo-Pacific during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries constitutes one of the more significant chapters in the early history of French-Australian relations. The various expeditions to the region resulted in important collections of natural history and ethnographic objects being taken back to France. They also generated a considerable number of written documents of different types. This article provides a brief history of the collection and preservation of those documents. In so doing, it aims to explain how these archival resources came to be located where they are today, and thus to facilitate the work of those wishing to pursue further research on the subject.