Margaret Cameron-Ash, eminent historian and author, presented the Pierre Roussel Memorial Lecture

Louis XVI’s new empire: New Zealand or Australia?

Margaret is the author of two books:

•             Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook’s Endeavour Voyage

•             Beating France to Botany Bay: The Race to Found Australia

 Margaret Cameron-Ash was born in Sydney and attended school there and in the United States. She graduated the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws degree and practiced law in Sydney and London.

She is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales and a former visiting fellow at the University of New South Wales.

Margaret appears regularly on radio and has been invited to address numerous institutes, schools, societies, and associations including the History Teachers Association of Australia. She is also a frequent contributor to various historical journals.

 Lying for the Admiralty: Captain Cook’s Endeavour Voyage - examines Captain Cook’s first Pacific voyage in 1768 – 1771.

Beating France to Botany Bay: The Race to Found Australia - examines the dispatch of the First Fleet following the departure of Laperouse’s French expedition to the Pacific in 1785.

 Reviewers say:

•             ‘the most significant contribution to Cook studies since Beaglehole’s edition of the journals’

Paul Brunton, Emeritus Curator, State Library of NSW

•             ‘she has authored a most readable book. Her painstaking research and analytical skills are evident throughout’.

John Howard, former Prime Minister

•             ‘turns history on its head’

Nigel Erskine, Head of Research, Australian National Maritime Museum

•             ‘it is easily the best book I have read all year, and one of the best in many a year’

Keith Windschuttle, Editor, Quadrant Magazine.