Name/TitleTerre de Diemen. Bara-Ourou. (The handsomest man in Oyster Bay)
Hand coloured engraved portrait. 1807
About this objectPortrait of an Aboriginal man from Oyster Bay on Maria Island off the east coast of Tasmania, Bara-Ourou, described by Peron as one of the handsomest of the Tasmanians. Drawn by Petit on the Baudin expedition of 1802 and subsequently published as a print in 1807 in Paris. Peron described Bara-Ourou as a young man of 24 or 25 years, 'who was more handsomely built than all the others'.
Peron and Petit had gone ashore at Oyster Bay with the sailor Rouget in attendance. They met some fourteen men who greeted them rapturously, the more so when Petit indulged them with a few sleights of hand like pretending to run a pin into his flesh without feeling any pain. All was going well, but the appearance offshore of another French boat changed the tone dramatically, as the group tried to hustle the Frenchmen for gifts, and Peron, in particular, only retained his jacket when he pointed at Rouget's musket and said the word "Mata", or "death". Indeed it was Bara-Ourou, who suddenly menaced the French again as they tried to leave, not desisting until Rouget pointed his musket
Miffed that their gifts had not prevented such alarms, in his account Peron used this event as central in his argument about the dangers of such meetings.
MakerNicholas Martin Petit - Artist
Maker RoleArtist
Date Made1807
Period19th century
Medium and MaterialsPaper and ink
Place MadeMaria Island, Tasmania, Australia
Place NotesInitial sketches
Place MadeParis, France
Place NotesPrinted
TechniqueEngraving
Measurements315mm x 240mm
Object TypeIndigenous History
Object numberSF000783
Copyright Licence
Attribution - Non-commercial - No Derivatives (cc)
Explore by category
Maps and Charts
Date range: 1541-1836
Ship Models
Date range: 1629-1890
Maritime Paintings
Date range: 1793-1849
Manuscripts and Ephemera
Date range: 1768-c1850
Medallions & Convict Tokens
Date range: 1619-1880
Indigenous History
Date range: c1800-1959
Landscapes
Date range: 1768-c1850
Books
Date range: 1694-c1850
Currency and Shares
Date range: 1624-1823
Printed Material
Date range: 1541-1836
Maritime Archaeology
Date range: 1629-1854
Curator's corner
New acquisitions, staff favourites and curios
The mug is decorated with an underglaze and a blue transfer print. On the body, it is titled ‘Emigrants to Australia’. This type of body and glaze was discontinued by 1840. Comparison of the handle shape and the profile of the foot, point to the attribution of manufacture by the Davenport Factory.
Delta was a ship-rigged vessel with two decks and three masts. It was built in Dordrecht, Netherlands in 1839 at the shipyard of Jan Schouten and registered in the same port. Its hull was constructed of oak and sheathed in ‘yellow metal’. Delta was owned by H. van der Sande at the time of its loss and was engaged as a cargo trader.
The Delta carried 29 crew and passengers, while sailing from Melbourne to Batavia in ballast when wrecked at Kenn Reefs on 30 May 1854 whilst under the command of Captain J.G. Kunst. This vessel loss supports the pattern of shipwrecks located on a well-travelled shipping route that was poorly charted until the mid-nineteenth century. The crew of the Delta could see four other shipwrecks at Kenn Reefs at the time of their vessel’s loss.
Important image of a ship associated with Matthew Flinders, that would shortly become one of the most famous early shipwrecks in eastern Australian waters. This is a fine ship’s portrait, by one of the great exponents of the art