ABSTRACT
Some other work, for instance on the French presence in the Pacific, has also been seen as an integral part of Australian historiography. Although the focus of Stuer's research was demographic, the book maps out the whole picture of the French presence in Australia, and it does so in a multidisciplinary perspective, not restricting itself to a narrow interpretation of immigration. Nonetheless the question of the French presence in the region remained a constant irritant in French-Australian relations in most parts of the continent. Four years later, in November 1896, reporting the creation of a French Chamber of Commerce in New York, the Courrier relaunched its campaign for a Chamber in Sydney. The story of the foundation of the Sydney French Chamber of Commerce during a period of serious tensions between France and the Australian colonies anticipates the ambivalent relations between the two countries throughout the following century, and more specifically during the 1990s.
