National Library of Australia  - Gateways

ISSN 1443-0568 | no. 73 | February 2005


Significant Maps by Determined Explorers

Carte réduite de la Nouvelle Hollande et des archipels : situés au nord et a l'est de cette ile sur la quelle on a marqué les découvertes et reconnaissances faittes en 1792 et 1793 par le Contre Amiral d'Entrecasteauz, Commandt des fregattes Françaises envoyées à la recherche de M. de la Perouse; redigée au Cap de Bonne Espérance par Beautemps Beaupré, ingenieur hygrographe, en 1796

C. F. (Charles Francois) Beautemps-Beaupré, 1766-1854
Carte réduite de la Nouvelle Hollande et des archipels : situés au nord et à l'est de cette ile sur la quelle on a marqué les découvertes et reconnaissances faittes en 1792 et 1793 par le contre Amiral d'Entrecasteauz, Commandt des frégattes Françaises envoyées à la recherche de M. de la Pérouse; redigée au Cap de Bonne Espérance par Beautemps Beaupré, ingenieur hygrographe, en 1796
1 map : ms., dissected and mounted on silk ; 57.7 x 90.9 cm., folded to 16 x 13 cm., in container 22 x 18 x 3 cm.
Map Collection, nla.map-rm3852
[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

 

The National Library recently acquired a very important manuscript map of Australia. It is one of remarkably few original eighteenth-century maps of Australia, New Zealand and neighbouring countries. Prepared by Charles-François Beautemps-Beaupré, the chief hydrographer of the D’Entrecasteaux expedition, the map gives us some insight into the new discoveries and knowledge of the area in the early 1790s. The previously uncharted coasts of South Australia and Victoria, correctly drawn on this map, make it historically significant. The image it presents of the Australian continent remained unchanged until the Baudin and Flinders expeditions of 1800–1804 and 1801–1803.

Beautemps-Beaupré, known for the accuracy of his fine charts, drew the map while at the Cape of Good Hope on his return voyage. The route taken by D’Entrecasteaux is charted in blue ink and places recognised by the expedition are highlighted in crimson ink. After D’Entrecasteaux died, near Java, Lieutenant Rossel took command and instructed Beautemps-Beaupré to prepare three sets of charts to ensure ‘the essential part of this expedition’ returned to France. The first set went with Rossel, who was subsequently captured by the British and did not return to France until 1802. The second set, carried by surgeon Renard on his voyage via America, is the manuscript map the National Library has now acquired. Beautemps-Beaupré personally delivered the third set to the French Ministry of the Marine, in 1796.

Map shewing country north of Coolgardie: including all mining centres & Lake Darlot: compass traverse by David Carnegie

David W. (David Wynford) Carnegie, 1871-1900.
Map shewing country north of Coolgardie: including all mining centres & Lake Darlot: compass traverse by David Carnegie
1 map : ms. ; 87.5 x 61.3 cm
Map Collection, nla.map-rm3850

[CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE]

 

Two other significant acquisitions transport us to a century later, from uncharted waters and coastlines to the wilderness and the uncharted desert country of Western Australia. The Library now owns an important pair of wall maps detailing the first and second expeditions in Western Australia of the young pioneer and explorer David Carnegie who was killed in Nigeria at the age of 29.

One is a manuscript wall map of Carnegie’s first expedition in 1894, when he ventured into unknown country with an experienced bushman and three camels. Prospecting as they went, they travelled 850 miles in 90 days and found gold at Niagara Creek, near Kookynie, Western Australia. The map illustrates the terrain in minute detail, including the vegetation, minerals, and sources of water. The freehold properties of the Hampton Mining Company and places such as Hampton Plains, Victoria Springs, Mount Shenton, and Mount Ida are shown on this pen and ink manuscript map.

A lithographed wall map, the second of the pair, shows Carnegie’s most important and ambitious 1896–1897 expedition. With four men and nine camels, the 25-year-old Carnegie set off in July 1896 to cross Western Australia from south to north. His aims were threefold: to discover gold, to explore the country between the routes of Warburton in 1873 and John Forrest in 1874, and to assess the prospects of a direct stock route between the Kimberley district and Coolgardie. For 13 months they travelled over 3000 miles in the first south-to-north and north-to-south crossings of Western Australia’s interior. They discovered no gold, pastoral lands, or passable stock route but a valuable survey and an expedition map were created.

Carnegie’s outstanding work in one of Australia’s great wildernesses earned him the Gill Medal of the Royal Geographical Society. In 1898 he published Spinifex and Sand, the account of his explorations.
—Teresa Donnellan, Senior Map Librarian

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