One Plus One Equals Three

Heaven's Above (this Part of the World)

The glorious Chart of Heavens Above the Southern Hemisphere by Dutch cartographer Jan Jansson from 1661.

The Southern Cross can be seen clearly (it's depicted literally with a cross) at the bottom of the image. This map is an example of star cartography, an endeavour where the 'celestial bodies' are mapped as an aid for understanding the heavens (for astronomers) and also perhaps once used for navigation (by, er, navigators) – although that may be a bit of a long shot for me. Turn left at the centaur?

Image from the National Library of Australia. More on Jansson.

Ocean Chart: The Hunting of the Snark

He had brought a large map
representing the sea,
Without the least verge of land:
And the crew were much pleased
when they found it to be
A map they could all understand

– Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark

From the very wonderful You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Maps of the Imagination by Katharine Harmon.

Australia Overlayed on Europe

The image is of uncertain provenance (who ever created it used coloured pencils?) – but it certainly shows the scale of Terra Australis when overlayed upon Europe. See larger size here.

Note to visitors from overseas (I hear this quite a bit): "I'm keen to go to Uluru, Broome and the Gold Coast, maybe Tasmania"... that's a long, long way intrepid traveller.

Via Happy Antipodean.

Map of Aboriginal Australia

Fascinating stuff: the map of Aboriginal Australia. Indicated are the original territories enjoyed by groupings of Aboriginal people. These groupings may have utilised their own particular language and each could have also contained clans and other dialects. The sheer number of groups at the 'Top End' is quite remarkable.

Another even more detailed (and zoom-able) map here – it contains information on Aboriginal tribes too. A great resource.

More on Norman Tindale, (he of the latter map, not the one above) a pioneering Australian archaeologist. "He was one of the first to successfully challenge the orthodoxy of the 1920s, that Aboriginal occupation of Australia had been relatively brief. His excavation of a 5000-year old Aboriginal rock shelter at Devon Downs on the Murray River in 1929 was a pivotal event."

Map above © D R Horton, Aboriginal Studies Press and Auslig/Sinclair, Knight, Merz 1996.

The Real Size of Victoria

I know this is how some Victorians may see the relationship between our fair state and the rest of Australia. This worldview is really quite misinformed and is grossly inaccurate.

Queensland should be at least half the size of what is indicated here and Uluru (or Ayer's Rock) has somehow moved beyond Victoria's northern border. Strange.

The Ten States of Australia

At the time of our Federation in 1901, Australia was divided into six states and two territories.

An earlier proposal from 1838 had the country divided into ten states. Starting at the lower left of the map and moving round clockwise:

Victoria (in the south-west corner of Western Australia, not where it currently resides), Dampieria, Tasmania (straddling present-day Western Australia and the Northern Territory, also not where it is currently located), Carpentaria, Torresia, Cooksland, Guelphia, Van Diemen’s Land, Flindersland and Nuytsland.

Guelphia obviously being the 'capital region' of the country containing both Sydney and Melbourne. It was never intended that Spain and Portugal be considered states of Australia. (They have been added to demonstrate scale). Although I must admit I have always thought of Spain as being like a large Tasmania, only with more bullfighters.

Some lovely names, and much more of a mathematical zoning system. Read more at the ever-excellent Strange Maps blog.

More maps of the evolution of Australia's states and territories here.