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elow left
James Cook (1728–1779,
surveyor) and Isaac Smith
(1752–1831, chartmaker)
A Plan of King George’s Island or
Otaheite 1769
ink and wash; 63.3 x 89.4 cm
British Library, London
© The British Library Board
(Additional 21593 B)
below right
Matthew Flinders (1774–1814)
General Chart of Terra Australis
or Australia 1814
copperplate engraving
63.1 x 91.7 cm
Maps Collection
nla.map-t570
The fourth section, The Dutch Golden
Age, begins in the late sixteenth century,
when Amsterdam became the great trading
powerhouse of Europe. The rise of the
Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (United East
India Company, or VOC) is seen through
the charts used by its ‘East Indiamen’, and in
sumptuous wall maps, atlases and a globe. The
Duyfken’s 1606 landing in Western Australia
is represented in the secret mapping of Hessel
Gerritsz, particularly the splendid 1622 map
of the Pacific Ocean from the Bibliothèque
nationale de France, a brilliant fusion of art
and cartography. Haunting objects from the
ship Batavia underscore the risks and rewards
of the lucrative East Indies trade. The De
Vlamingh Plate from the Western Australian
Museum is a remarkable relic of the 1616
and 1696–1697 voyages of Dirk Hartog and
Willem de Vlamingh, while the surviving
Dutch nautical charts from the National
Library of Australia’s collection show the skill
involved in mapping the Australian coast.
The exhibition’s final section, Europe
and the South Pacific, reveals how rivalry
in the South Pacific between the two
major European powers, Great Britain and
France, resulted in epic voyages and the
finest cartography and major advances in
navigational technology. Highlights in this
section include early chronometers, six of
Captain James Cook’s Endeavour voyage
(1768–1771) charts from the British Library,
and five Matthew Flinders charts from The
National Archives of the United Kingdom.
Also on display are landmark French atlases,
and a manuscript map, one of two copies
drawn at the request of Louis XVI for the illfated
voyage of French explorer La Pérouse.
(La Pérouse took one copy; this version stayed
behind in the archives.) Cook’s mapping is
represented by his stunning plan of Tahiti;
the iconic map of Tupaia the Polynesian priest
who provided life-saving assistance to the
Endeavour in the South Pacific; a port chart of
Botany Bay; and two charts of the east coast
of Australia from 1770. Flinders’ charts, two
of which were made during his six-and-a-half
year imprisonment on Mauritius, are highly
detailed and brilliantly drawn. The exhibition
ends with his completed coastal map which
named Australia, published in 1814, and its
updated version of 1822.
In this journey from Terra incognita to
Australia, it is tempting to think about the
‘what ifs’. What if the Dutch had completed
the job of mapping Australia? What if French
settlement had followed their mapping of
the continent? For many Australians, the
south land legend is the great enduring
myth, or truth, depending on your point of
view. How the notion of a great south land
emerged on European maps, to be reshaped
by feats of exploration and discovery and to
eventually come face-to-face with its real
counterpart, Australia, and thereby vanish,
is among the most compelling of stories,
and one which needs to be told. We invite
you to program your GPS for the National
Library and see how Australia materialised
on European maps.
DR MARTIN WOODS, Curator of Maps,
DR SUSANNAH HELMAN, Assistant Curator
of Exhibitions, and NAT WILLIAMS, now James
and Bettison Treasures Curator, are the curators
of this exhibition
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