Discovery & Exploration - Maps
By Marg Powell, Specialist Library Technician, Metadata | 4 August 2025
Mar del Sur. Mar Pacifico [South Sea. Pacific Ocean] by Hessel Gerritsz, met Octroy vande E. H. M. Heeren de Staten Generael der Vereenichde Nederlander CD DC X XXII II. [1622]. State Library of Queensland collection.
The Truth about Maps
“If you look at maps today, whether paper or digital, you’ll find a lot of blank space outside of highly populated cities and towns. That’s not how the Indigenous community sees their Country ... It’s waterways. It’s many ceremonial sites linked together by walking paths. It’s a convergence of resources inside of the landscape … It's rich with layers and meaning. It’s the centre of the universe.” ... Andrew Dowding, Managing Director of Winyama, 2025
The European search for, and eventual settlement of, Terra Australis - the Southern Land - gained momentum in 1768 when James Cook was commissioned by the British Admiralty. His meticulous navigational and hydrographic charts laid the groundwork for colonisation.
Since that time, the Traditional Owners of these lands have endured physical and cultural dispossession, along with a profound loss of connection to their Country.
Early European mapmakers, producing work mainly for external audiences, often labelled land in terms of its suitability for European-style agriculture and settlement. These maps included aspirational elements - with references to "unexplored country" - implying the potential for untapped wealth. Rarely did they acknowledge the presence of First Nations peoples. This omission reflected colonial ideologies of superiority and the doctrine of Terra Nullius - the false premise that the land belonged to no one.
Today, maps - whether in print or digital, in the car or on the phone - guide us from home to work, to sporting events, or to holiday destinations. Yet the names on these maps are not those given by the original custodians of the land.
The State Library of Queensland holds an extensive collection of maps, charts, sketches, globes, and illustrations. These include traditionally published formats as well as hand-drawn depictions from explorers, expeditioners, surveyors and hydrographers such as Robert Logan Jack, Edmund Kennedy and Edward Bedwell - offering a unique insight into how the land was once recorded through colonial eyes.
See also ... Explorers ... Surveyors ... Naval Surveys
Selected significant collections ...
Ronald Vere Tooley (1898-1986) was a map dealer and an authority on early maps and cartographers. His collection of maps and charts was purchased by the National Library of Australia in 1973. Many of them are also included in the collections of the State Library of Queensland.
[ Map collection, NLA ] [Printed works, SLQ ] [ Tooley referenced maps, SLQ ]
This collection includes maps dating from c1570 relating to the southern hemisphere and Terra Australis. The majority of the Queensland Department of Mapping and Surveying 'Early Maps Collection' was acquired by the State Library of Queensland in 1991. Each map has been individually catalogued.
India quae orientalis dicitur, et insulae adiacentes, [1635?] Map of south and southeast Asia. Northern coast line of New Guinea, southern coast line of Japan and tip of northern Australia is shown. State Library of Queensland collection [full view]
State Library of Queensland has a unique collection of original maps and plans created by real estate firms between the 1850s to the mid 1900s. These maps provide information about how the land was subdivided, when it was first auctioned, who the surveyors were and who sold the land.
The maps are predominantly from Brisbane but also cover some regional areas of Queensland such as the Gold and Sunshine Coasts.
Bathers Paradise Estate, Queens Beach, Redcliffe. State Library of Queensland collection [full view]
Noel Hodge (1933-2008) was a dental surgeon who resided in Vaucluse, Sydney and who was also a keen collector of historical maps. They were originally purchased and documented by the Queensland Department of Mapping and Surveying [Department of Lands] in 1980.
The majority of his collection was later acquired in 1991 by the State Library of Queensland. Each map has been individually catalogued and housed in the Library's map collection.
Chart of part of the coast of New South Wales, from Cape Tribulation to Endeavour Straits. Originally in 1773. From the Noel Hodge map collection, State Library of Queensland [full view]
John O'Hagan, AO was born in Brisbane and began his career at the Queensland Government Survey Office, where he first developed a passion for collecting maps. He worked as a cadet draughtsman in the Queensland Department of Public Lands while studying science as an evening student at the University of Queensland in 1939.
During the Second World War, O’Hagan served in the Australian Army and continued his academic pursuits. He completed a Bachelor of Science in 1947, followed by a Master of Science and a Doctorate in 1959 - the first PhD in biochemistry awarded by the University of Queensland.
Orbis terrae compendiosa descriptio quam ex Magna Universali Gerardi Mercatoris Domino Richardo Gartho. State Library of Queensland collection. State Library of NSW digitised item.
Richard Frank Tunley Braille Globe digital story.
A digital story introducing the Tunley braille globe, the significance of the digitisation project being undertaken thanks to QLF's 'crowdgiving' funding, the 3D scanning process, prototyping and testing of resulting open access resources created (eg 3D printable files), looking at important lessons learnt during entire process.
Richard Frank Tunley made hundreds of maps, globes, models, toys, doll houses and other educational aides for visually impaired children in Queensland, Australia and other parts of the world.
His interest in helping blind and deaf children stemmed from his own partial deafness. His greatest achievements included helping to make education compulsory for deaf and blind children in 1924 and in the establishment of Braille House at Annerley in the 1950s.
Discover more ...
Explore all State Library Maps
View all maps held at the State Library of Queensland, many are available onlineMap of Indigenous Australia
This map attempts to represent the language, social or nation groups of Aboriginal Australia. It shows only the general locations of larger groupings of people which may include clans, dialects or individual languages in a group.Colonial Frontier Massacres map
An example of how a map can be used for truth-telling, which documents the atrocities against Aboriginal men, women and children
Further reading ...
How maps can be a medium for truth-telling [blog, Winyama, 2025]
The Truth about maps
Learning with digital maps can bring discussions of colonization, land rights, language, and Indigenous history. The University of British Columbia, 24 January 2022The map thief by Michael Blanding, published by Penguin, 2014
The story of an esteemed rare-map dealer who made millions stealing priceless mapsThe Island of lost maps by Miles Harvey, published by Random House, 2002
Miles Harvey tells the story of a curious crime spree: the theft of scores of valuable centuries-old maps from some of the most prominent research libraries in the United States and Canada.The Mapping of Australia by Ronald Tooley, published by Holland Press, 1969
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