The Mayor Councillor Scott Nash and the local state MP, the Hon. Michael Daley each laid wreaths on the tomb.

Fr. Chris Shorrock from Melbourne officiated.  Fr Chris is a member of the General Custody of Our Lady Help of Christians, Australia of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual.  In 1987 he gained a Bachelor of Theology (B.Theol.), from the Melbourne College of Divinity and in 1989 he completed a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) at the Pontifical Faculty of St. Bonaventure, Rome. In 2008 he received his Doctor of Theology (D.Theol.) from the Melbourne College of Divinity.  Publications : 1985 – Life of St. Joseph of Cupertino, Australian Catholic Truth Society (32pp) 1992 – “Mary in the Writings of St. Francis of Assisi” – Franciscan Documentation (India) 1995 – 2007, Editor and contributor, The Little Troubadour, Quarterly Publication of Order of Friars Minor Conventual, Australia. 2007 to present: Lecturer in Franciscan Studies and Church History, Catholic Theological College, Melbourne, Australia.

Photos:  Top – Fr Shorrock on verandah; Mayor of Randwick Mr Scott Nash with (L) Mr Tony Gentile Secretary of the Friends of Laperouse Museum and (R) President Dr Bill Land; Friends Refreshments Table; Second Row: – Fr Jan and Musicians; Communion; Procession with Laperouse Monument in background; Third Row – Procession and Wreath Laying at Tomb; Bottom Row – Musicians at Gravesite.
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UPDATE:  July 19:

Receveur  Grave Conservation Works

 Funding:  Consulat Général de France en Australie, Sydney

 Conservators:  Lillico-Thomspon Conservation

 Commissioned by: NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

To date a number of different paint colours have been uncovered.     Some of the original lettering (c. 1827) has been revealed.  The lettering was filled in when the new bronze cross was erected in 1930.   The original sandstone surface appears to be in a stable state. Further investigation will be required before a decision can be made on repainting or leaving the sandstone exposed.

A crowd of over 260  welcomed the Governor, Marie Bashir and her husband Sir Nicholas Shehadie to the annual Receveur Mass today.

Photos L-R, Governor Maree Bashir with Ed Duyker, author of Père Receveur Franciscan, scientist and voyager with Lapérouse ;  Local MP Michael Daley taking the reading;   Communion;  and below(left) Procession; (middle) Graveside,  (right) Father Paul Ghanem with musicians, (far below) Laperouse Monument.

Autographed copies of the booklet are available at $10.00 + $2.00 postage and handling.

(photos: Ed Duyker with Franciscan Fr. Paul Ghanem (top) and Snakeman of La Perouse, John Cann (bottom)

Père Receveur : Franciscan, Scientist and Voyager with Lapérouse.Engadine : Dharawal Publications.50 p. : ill ; 21.000 x 014.800 cm.
ISBN: 9780987072702ISBN: 0987072706 (Trade Paper) AUD 15.00 Retail Price (Publisher)

About the author :

Edward Duyker OAM, FAHA, is the eldest of eight children born in Melbourne to a Dutch father and a Mauritian mother in 1955. He graduated from La Trobe University in 1977 with
a BA (Hons.) and received his Ph.D. from the University of Melbourne in 1981. He worked as an intelligence officer (South Asia/Middle East) with the Department of Defence in
Canberra until 1983 and was briefly a Teaching Fellow at Griffith University in Brisbane. In 1984 he settled in Sydney as an independent historian. Between 1996 and 2002 he also served as the Honorary Consul of the Republic of Mauritius in New South Wales. He has published seventeen books, many dealing with early Australian coastal exploration and the natural sciences. These include An Officer of the Blue (1994), a biography of Marc-Joseph Marion Dufresne (the first explorer after Tasman to reach Van Diemen’s Land); Nature’s Argonaut (1998), a biography of Daniel Solander the Swedish naturalist on the Endeavour, which was shortlisted for the New South Wales Premier’s General History Prize in 1999; Citizen Labillardière (2003), a biography of the naturalist Jacques-Julien Houtou de Labillardière, which won the New South Wales Premier’s General History Prize in 2004; and François Péron (2006), a biography of the controversial zoologist of Nicolas Baudin’s expedition to Australian waters, which won the Frank Broeze Maritime History Prize in 2007. In 2001, with his mother, Maryse Duyker, he also published the first English translation of the journal of the French explorer Bruny d’Entrecasteaux. In 2007 Edward Duyker was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. He is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Arts and Sciences at the Australian Catholic University and an Honorary Senior Lecturer, in the Department of French Studies, School of Languages and Cultures, at the University of Sydney.

All welcome to attend.  (Photo above:  Sam Hood, 1933)

Despite claims that the first Christian services were held in the new colony around Circular Quay on 3rd February(see photograph left) , it is much more likely that Receveur and Mongez would have held mass not long after landing on the 26th or 27th January 1788 (which was a Sunday).

Receveur Mass organised by volunteers and staff of St Andrew, Malabar,  commences at 11.00.  Randwick City Council sponsors a marquee and chairs are provided.  Friends of the Laperouse Museum and Rotary provide assistance.

To celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the founding of the Franciscan order members of the Franciscan parish of Deeragun, Townsville, are conducting a pilgrimage to important Catholic sites in Sydney. The leaders of the group are Franciscan Friar Giles Setter and Mary-Ellen Pattinson. Mary-Ellen is an Education Consultant for the Townsville Catholic Education Office and is interested in including the Receveur story in the curriculum. When the group arrived today they immediately headed for the La Perouse headland to pay their respects at Receveur’s Grave. The group will be leaving on Sunday. The Receveur Grave is a very important site for Catholics and particularly Franciscans, because it is on the La Perouse headland that the first Christian services, Roman Catholic Masses, were celebrated in colonial Australia. The first burial mass in Australia was for Receveur. It was performed by fellow chaplain and noted physicist and geologist on the Laperouse expedition, Abbé Jean-Andre Mongez. Each year St Andrew’s Catholic Church at Malabar hosts the Pere Receveur Mass. See details for 2009.

The Headland is now regarded as a site of major significance for catholic pilgrims from around the world as evidenced by the high visitations to the site. In 2008 it attracted pilgrims visiting Sydney for World Youth Day.

The group pictured at the Laperouse Monument and graveside with Fr Paul Ghanem, from Waverley OFM. More details on Receveur.