Colonial Sydney: A Cartographic Record of Change

Abstract

This review of the cartographic record of colonial Sydney illustrates change from an isolated English penal colony of 1000 inhabitants, to an independent international city of half a million. Patterns of map production and distribution reflect changes in society and the structural evolution of a ‘world city.’ Histiocartographic analysis illustrates the:

• 1. transition from a make-shift village to a world centre,

• 2. evolution from a penal colony (1788–1840) via a ‘nodal city’ controlling exports, to an international city, important in its own right,

• 3. and the switch from a small, ‘walking city’ with colonial outposts to an urban/suburban complex absorbing its rural hinterland (the Cumberland Plain).

Printed maps and their publication and distribution characteristics both illustrate change, and add to the dynamic with their focus on colonial printing history. Maps in the First Fleet Journals (1789–1792) show early hope, then disappointment while those of French visitors (Baudin, 1802) depict a composite and busy village. The impact of Macquarie is seen in a map by Thomas Mitchell (Surveyor General), published with the “NSW Calendar & Directory” (1831), a list of residents connected with ‘the General Post Office.’ It was the first local, commercially lithographed map, and represented a watershed moment when Australian printing could replace cheaper printing in Europe. Traditional European sources (e.g. printed atlases, Hansard, published journals) contained few large-scale maps of Sydney—from this time nearly all important maps were published by local printers.