ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 59| October 2002
On Loan to the
National Library—
The First Complete Set of British Admiralty Charts of Australian Waters
A complete set of the first issue of British Admiralty charts of Australian waters has been deposited on loan with the National Library of Australia by donors who wish to remain anonymous. The charts are to the 1880s and were issued following the surveys conducted by Matthew Flinders and Phillip Parker King.
Mounted ready for display the charts are grouped by region, such as northern and southern waters, and housed in custom-made blue, quarter leather-bound folders. Gold embossed tooling on the spine and the British Admiralty logo complete the elegant presentation of the collection.
Following the extensive surveys of the Australian coastline by Flinders and King, the British Admiralty, under the command of the hydrographer, Captain Francis Beaufort, commenced, in 1829, the surveys of the remaining part of the coastline.
Increasing trade and travel between Britain and the colonies of New South Wales and India, through Australia’s northern waters with the inevitable shipwrecks, convinced Beaufort that more detailed surveys were required and that the days of the running survey technique used by Flinders and King were over. The Northwest Cape, the Gulf of Carpentaria, and Bass Strait received attention. Naval surveyors such as J.C. Wickham, J.L. Stokes, J.S. Roe, F.P. Blackwood and H.M. Denham undertook the detailed and often treacherous survey work during the 1840–1860s. Their maps are also represented in the collection.
Under Thomas Evans’ command which began in 1874, further work continued, particularly in the Coral Sea, in recognition of the advent of steam vessels and their greater mobility. Surveys of Victorian and South Australian waters were also carried out.
The piecemeal charting of Australian waters is reflected in the dates of surveys
which appear on the charts. This also reflected the British Admiralty’s increasingly
extensive role in attempting to chart all the world’s oceans and seas in a period
of increasing maritime activity. The charts in this collection provide a valuable
record of the British Admiralty’s contribution to the charting, and the safe
passage, of Australian waters to the end of the nineteenth century.
—Maura O’Connor
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