Mapping
Discover Australia and the world through our cartographic collections.
- Discovery
- History
- Partnerships
Voyages of discovery
New territory for maps
The world of early cartography is irresistible in the Library’s new Map Rooms.
The world in a book: the first atlases
In the Golden Age of Cartography, the first atlases combined the skills of the mapmaker with the ingenuity of the publisher.
A Map of Africa, Asia and the East Indies, 1599, by Evert Gijsbertsz
Throughout the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries decorated wall charts documented recent discoveries and expeditions, served as planning tools for future trading ventures, and attested to the wealth and power of their owners. But few wall charts are as beautifully illustrated as this example from 1599.
- History
- Quick Reads
Leaving home
It was a six-week journey by sea from Australia to Egypt and after the excitement of enlistment, training and farewells some feelings of boredom were inevitable among the troops.
- History
- Quick Reads
Mapping the war
The Library holds hundreds of maps documenting the progress of the war.
- History
- People
- In Depth
Matthew Flinders: placing Australia on the map
Flinders proved that Tasmania was an island, traced the coasts of the Australian continent and was the first person to use ‘Australian’ to describe the inhabitants of this land. He named nothing after himself.
- Art and culture
- Partnerships
- In Depth
French in Australia
The history of the French in Australia dates from the arrival of the La Perouse expedition at Botany Bay in January 1788, just days after the landing of the First Fleet.
- Discovery
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- Image
- In Depth
Antarctica: modern adventures
Like many other nations, Australia was looking to the future after the turmoil of the Second World War. Several countries saw Antarctica as a potential source of territory, fishing and mineral resources.
- Discovery
- History
- Natural world
- Image
- Quick Reads
Early Antarctic adventures
The subject of much speculation, the idea of an unknown southern land began with the ancient Greeks.
- History
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Looking north: Sydney's Upper North Shore
- Discovery
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Hume and Hovell
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Hunter Valley
Caergwrle (pronounced Ka-girlie) is situated on the Allyn River, in one of the most beautiful rural areas of the Hunter Valley.
- Art and culture
- History
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Papua New Guinea (PNG): Forty years of independence
- History
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Aviation in Australia
Aviation in Australia traces the history of flight from its infancy through to the twentieth century.
- Art and culture
- Partnerships
- In Depth
The Dixson map collection
Explore the extensive collection of 16th to 20th century maps donated by Sir William Dixson.
- Discovery
- History
- In Depth
From Terra Australis to Australia
Discover the original journals, logbooks, letters, paintings and drawings covering the voyage of the First Fleet, the mutiny on the Bounty and Matthew Flinders' journeys.
- Discovery
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- Quick Reads
Thomas Livingstone Mitchell: mapmaker
A larger-than-life character whose passions included the study of fossils, poetry and the mechanical and scientific arts, Mitchell looms large in Australian colonial history.
- History
- Partnerships
- Quick Reads
The Spanish quest for Terra Australis
Spanish explorer Pedro Fernandes de Queirós' quest to discover Terra Australis is documented in a number of rare 'memorials' held by the Library.
- Discovery
- Partnerships
- People
- In Depth
Lasseter's lost reef
Nothing captures the Australian imagination quite like the thought of striking it lucky. So it’s no surprise one of our greatest legends involves a search for a mysterious vein of gold.
- Discovery
- Partnerships
- People
- In Depth
Captain Cook’s voyages of discovery
Terra Australis Incognita – the unknown southern land. The existence (or not) of this mysterious, mythical place had been puzzled over since it was first hypothesised by the ancient Greeks and Romans
- Discovery
- Partnerships
- People
- In Depth
Leichhardt’s continental treks
On an expedition to cross the Australian continent from East to West, the celebrated explorer Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-1848) and his party disappeared.
- About the State Library
- Art and culture
- Discovery
- History
- Image
- Quick Reads
The Tasman Map: two voyages to the southern ocean between 1642 and 1644
The story of the Tasman Map is a tale of mystery, discovery and a chance finding on the Nullarbor Plain.
- Discovery
- Natural world
- Partnerships
- People
- Image
- In Depth
Crossing the Blue Mountains
None of the settlers in Sydney knew what lay west of the Blue Mountains in the early 1800s. This vast natural barrier that stretched north and south beyond sight had thwarted all attempts to cross or go around it.