Map collection

There are over 5,000 maps in the ANU Archives. They date from the 1820s and cover many parts of Australia. There are topographical maps of rural properties, street maps of towns and settlements, hand-drawn maps of exploration, and geological maps of mining areas. Many were deposited by pastoral and land development companies including:

• Australian Agricultural Company Limited
• Australian Mercantile Land and Finance Company Limited
• Dalgety and Company
• Goldsbrough Mort and Company Limited
• Lake George Mines Pty Limited
• New Zealand and Australian Land Company
• New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company Limited
• Peel River Land and Mineral Company Limited

There are also a large number of maps and plans from the Sydney Meat Preserving Company and plans from the Graziers Association of New South Wales, and many smaller collections. There are a small number of maps of New Zealand and the Pacific, including maps of Papua New Guinea and Fiji in collections of University academics such as geographer Professor Gerard Ward and linguist Professor Stephen Wurm.

Using the map catalogue

Search the map catalogue here.

Start your search with the name of the location you are interested in. Some locations, such as Newcastle, will return hundreds of results so you may need to be more specific, such as ‘Newcastle Harbour’ or ‘Hamilton’. You can also do a search using the name of the county and parish. All entries have a county (or state or country), but not all have parishes.

The maps are also classified in the column 'Catalogue No.' using the Boggs and Lewis system, as adapted by the Mitchell Library. For instance, a search on 811.25 will find maps of Newcastle, 841.10 maps of Brisbane and 921.3 maps of Papua New Guinea.

If you want to undertake an extensive search, take note of the collections which any results come from, as it is likely that there are more related maps in those collections.

The spelling of many placenames has changed over time so you will need to enter any variations that you know about.

How to order maps

To order a map, enter the map number on a request slip, noting also the collection it comes from. Please take note of the size of the maps which is recorded in centimetres, so a map 100 x 220 is a metre high and over two metres wide.

If you want a copy of a map we can provide A3 size sections by photocopy or a photographic print or digital copy of an entire map. Charges are set out in fact sheets on Photocopying and Photography. The resolution at which a map is scanned will depend on the size of the map. If too high a resolution is used for a large map the digital image file may be too large to open.

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are for terms used in pastoral maps for New South Wales and Queensland: