By Cara Waters
After an absence of 24 years, the French consulate-general has reopened in Melbourne, led by newly appointed French consul-general Paule Ignatio.
The consulate-general itself is housed in a fairly nondescript glass office block just off St Kilda Road, with the only giveaways being the signage on the second floor and French and Australian flags against the wall.
Paule Ignatio, French consul-general, at the reopened consulate general in Melbourne. Credit: Eddie Jim
Although the team is small, Ignatio says the reopening is an important moment in French and Australian relations.
“This is really a major political signal from France toward Australia in terms of goodwill and renewal of our bilateral relations,” she says. “I would even say a proof of love, as it is quite unusual for France to open a new consulate as we already have a universal diplomatic network.”
The first French consular agency was opened in 1854 when Lionel de Moreton Charbrillan, close friend of emperor Napoleon III was sent to Melbourne within the first years of the Second French Empire.
However, in 2000 France closed its consulate and limited its presence to an honorary consulate, a position most recently held by Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie.
Now the French are back, following the signing of a bilateral road map between France and Australia in 2023, which Ignatio says is “quite ambitious”.
Melbourne now hosts two major initiatives from the bilateral road map: the French-Australian Cultural Exchange Foundation and the French-Australian Centre for Energy Transition.
Both bodies are headquartered in Melbourne and operate across Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific region.
The French-Australian Cultural Exchange Foundation is an exchange of artists residencies between France and Australia with different projects around Australia, and in the Pacific a focus on promoting art from France’s territories in the Pacific such as New Caledonia and also of Australia’s First Nations people.
Ignatio is eating her way around Melbourne’s French restaurants including France-Soir.Credit: Simon Schluter
The French-Australian Centre for Energy Transition is based at Swinburne University and seeks to identify solutions for climate change and to offer coalitions of partnerships and enterprises.
“France is already part of the development of Victoria from the Suburban Rail Loop to the desalinisation facility, from the solar panels to the offshore wind farms, from the Collins Street Paris end to the Yarra trams,” Ignatio says. “We are already very deeply connected here.”
There are 160 French companies operating in Victoria, and Ignatio says about one-third of the French companies in Australia are based in Melbourne.
“Keolis Downer has operated Melbourne’s trams for the last nine years, and it is being taken over by a new French company Transdev along with Bouygues, which is delivering the Metro Tunnel construction,” she says.
Ignatio says France is a big investor in Victoria, deploying $5.6 billion over the last six years.
It’s a turnaround from the rupture in French-Australian relations caused by the Morrison government’s cancellation of a $90 billion submarine contract with French company Naval Group.
Ignatio, 47, describes herself as a “career diplomat”, having spent 20 years working for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Asia and Oceania.
“I am also an expert on soft power like supporting cultural diplomacy and sports diplomacy”, she says.
This includes working as a diplomatic adviser to the French minister for sport and the Olympics and Paralympics, culminating in the Paris Olympics last year.
The consulate-general opened its doors in Melbourne in October last year, and Ignatio says the experience has already been “beyond my expectations”.
“I realised that we have lots of similarities, France and Victoria, really the taste for celebrating events in outdoors spaces from the cities, the inclination of walking down the street,” she says. “There is a similarity of climate for production and enjoyment of wine, passion for food, culture, in general, for life.”
The Victorian government said the re-establishment of the consulate-general was “a welcome sign”.
“Our state shares a strong and enduring relationship with France that is built on a shared commitment to economic and cultural collaboration,” a spokesperson said.
The consulate’s archives show that Victoria hired a French viticulture teacher in 1897 to help develop vineyards in the state.
“So maybe that’s why the wine from Victoria is one of the best in the world,” Ignatio says.
Ignatio has brought some of her French habits to Melbourne, including riding her bike into the consulate-general, a mode of transport favoured in Paris where the installation of new cycling infrastructure caused bicycle usage to double from 2023 to 2024.
She says while Melbourne has a great cycling network, more bike lanes separated from traffic would be helpful.
“What can be ameliorated is the protection from the roads with the cars,” she says. “You can put things like we have in Paris, that could be better.”
She has also been busy exploring Melbourne’s French restaurants, dining at France-Soir, Entrecote and Philippe among others, but when asked to nominate a favourite, Ignatio demurs.
“I cannot choose because I think there are several different places, and I am really quite amazed by the vibrancy of the dining scene and wine,” she says.
Spoken like a true diplomat.
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