'mapping'

European mapping is based on Western concepts as they relate to geographical space. From the early 1500s to the 1800s, maps represented religious and political views of the communities that the map makers were serving as well as the scientific knowledge at the time. Artistic beauty was combined with geographical information because of the intention to sell the map or please a patron or employer.

Gradually, during the 1800s, the decorative content of maps was removed in the search for accuracy and scientific precision. One of the challenges of western map making is to represent the earth, a curved surface in a three dimensional space, on a flat surface. The compass, the sextant and the printing press were a few of the inventions that drastically changed the accuracy and distribution of maps.

When Australia's coastlines were being plotted by European mariners and navigators in the late 1700s to 1800s, there was a growing acceptance of a scientific approach to mapping, based on compass points, latitude and longitude, scale and elevation.

In 1810 Matthew Flinders completed the first chart of the Australian coastline including the separation of Tasmania by Bass Strait, naming the continent 'Australia'. Flinders was accompanied by Bungaree, an Aboriginal man from the Broken Bay area, when he sailed on the Norfolk and by Bungaree and Nanbaree on the Investigator.

Both western maps and Indigenous representation of 'country' use conventional symbols. Symbols in Aboriginal maps can sometimes have more than one meaning depending on both the context of the relationship to other symbols and also who is 'reading' the map. For example, a series of concentric circles usually means a camp site, but it may also mean a rock hole, fire or fruit. Spiraling lines can mean water, rainbow, fire, snakes, lightning, a string or a honey storage place for native bees. Indigenous maps are also not necessarily to scale in a linear sense, and may not show every feature of the landscape.

Indigenous co-operation with drawing European coastal charts

In the summer of 1801, Matthew Flinders was welcomed by Nyungar upon his arrival aboard the Investigator and various items were exchanged. On the 1802 voyage from Sydney, Flinders recruited two Aboriginal people, Bungaree, who had sailed with him on the Norfolk, and Nanbaree. The visit of Flinders and other mariners to the coast of Arnhem Land is recorded in the local Aboriginal paintings of 'praus' (Macassan sailing vessels) and European ships at rock art sites.

In March 1812, the Colonial Surveyor George William Evans was sent to explore Jervis Bay, to determine a possible inland route back to Port Jackson as part of the colonial practice of systematic surveying of the land⁶. Bundle⁷, an Eora man who ranged from Port Jackson to Parramatta in the company of Tedbury, the son of Pemulwuy, was renowned for his tracking skills. Bundle was with Evans on board the Lady Nelson. The journey was never publicised by Macquarie, because it almost ended in disaster for the members of the exploration party. This survey expedition did, however, result in the settlement of the Illawarra area in the drought years that followed.

In the Illawarra region, the Aboriginal artist Mickey of Ulladulla⁸ (c.1820–1891), a member of the Dhurga people, drew the world around him with an extraordinary vitality and sensitivity to detail, including a chart of the coastal areas north and south of Ulladulla. Depicting flora and fauna of Ulladulla, Mickey added to the European records of the coastal area. His works are an unequalled record of an Indigenous perspective during the mid to late 1800s, a time otherwise dominated by European artists and writers.

The peoples of the Torres Strait Islands⁹ are sea-faring people known for their navigation skills. The dreamtime stories of their people, the Tagai, usually focus on stars, which they used to navigate a safe journey when travelling across the seas in their double outrigger canoes under sail¹⁰.

European theories of a large southern continent

European ideas of a southern continent date back to Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras (ca. 560 – ca. 480 BC). His followers were the first to document the theory of landmasses in the southern hemisphere to counterweight the northern hemisphere to ensure a balance in the globe. This idea of a large southern continental mass strongly influenced cartographers until the late 1400s with the belief in the unknown Great South Land¹¹.

In 1570, Terra Australis Nondum Cognita (south land not yet known) appears as a gigantic Antarctic continent on a new world map¹² published by Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598). The Spaniard Benito Arias Montano's world map¹³ (1571) displays a portion of Northern Australia with an undefined southern boundary, reflecting the French school of map rendition for the southern hemisphere.

By the late 1500s, Portuguese and Spanish explorers opened a sea route to India and Asia and charted most of Indonesia, the northern New Guinea coastline and several islands in the South Pacific.

In 1581, Dutch merchants needed access to spices in order to fund costly military operations in a war with the Spanish and formed the Dutch East India Company¹⁴. This led to Dutch exploration along Australia's shores and to the making of maps of Australia's north, west and south.


http://australia.gov.au/about-australia/australian-story/mapping-australias-coastline