"France of the Southern Hemisphere": transferring a European wine model to colonial Australia

The development of viticulture in Australia in the nineteenth century mostly drew on European models to spread both wine production and consumption in the colonial societies during the nineteenth century. Among these models, France gradually appeared as a specific choice due to the reputation of its wines and its cultural practices in the British world. This thesis intends to analyse the transfers of skills, technologies, vine grapes and experts from various French regions to the Australian colonies of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. These three colonies collectively represented the most productive wine district during the nineteenth century and the most evident marks of a French influence. This circulation of knowledge mostly relied on wealthy British colonists’ initiatives in order to develop economically and culturally the colonies. This thesis presents new evidence of the importance of the cross-cultural and transnational aspects which shaped the world wine industry in the nineteenth century. It also shows how Australia instigated these transfers of French practices and ideas and reshaped them to fit its natural, economic, political and socio-cultural environment. Overall, this thesis, situated at the intersection of wine history and transnational history, gives a new insight on the effects of the first wave of globalisation which facilitated the circulation of knowledge, technologies and production models from Europe to the New World. It highlights the importance of interpersonal and interinstitutional exchanges occurring across national boundaries in the development of agricultural production, commodity trade and scientific knowledge. It also questions Franco–Australian transfers as a reflexivity process peculiar to histoire croisée. As such, this research project has been conducted both in Australia and in France as a transnational investigation mixing perspectives from the English-speaking world and the French-speaking world.