But where is the green sheep? Old maps put the art in cartography

Posted

Here are the "some sheep", and here are the "no sheep" — but where is the green sheep?

The national library's Trove digital service has been highlighting quirky old maps of the continent, starting with a 1920s graphic dividing the country up into the sheep haves and have-nots.

Artist Judy Horacek, who illustrated Mem Fox's children's classic Where is the Green Sheep?, approved of the idea.

For the record, Meat and Livestock Australia has this more modern take on the old sheep map, which is impressively precise — who knew there were only 167 head of sheep in the Northern Territory? — but not as charming.

The sheep map was such a hit, Trove has been pointing out other old maps of Australia in their collection of more than 600,000.

All of those sheep needed 'much grass' to graze on.

What was the purpose of the maps?

Maps curator at the National Library of Australia, Martin Woods, says these types of maps were produced for government circulation, school text-books or as part of campaigns to change public awareness or support industry.

The cartographer was Thomas Griffith Taylor, a geologist and survivor of Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic.

You might have noticed the population map above is missing Darwin, and it's not a mistake.

At the time this map was produced, Darwin's population was about 1,500 people and it wasn't granted city status until Australia Day in 1959.

What else can we find out from old maps?

Norman Tindale's 1940 map of Aboriginal tribes was pieced together from an anthropological expedition, and gives a distinct set of boundaries to the many Australian language groups.

Zoom in for a closer look.

Dr Woods says the Margaret Spilhaus map (below) is one of the most colourful pictorial maps of the 1920s.

"I think of it as 'artography'."

Can you zoom in and find:

A man riding a turtle.

The old name for Fraser Island.

A native animal that is now extinct.

Spilhaus was a South African author of several children's and historical books concerned with the age of exploration and colonial history, Dr Woods says.

"Her maps of continents have become highly collectible and included this one of Australia, first produced in 1927."

This map of European explorers' routes would have been used in many a school project.

And we found the green (outlined) sheep below. But are any of them fast asleep?

Did you find this story surprising, insightful or useful? Sign up to hear about interactives, visualisations and good reads from the ABC News Digital Storytelling team. (No more than one email a week, we promise.)

to hear about interactives, visualisations and good reads from the ABC News Digital Storytelling team. (No more than one email a week, we promise.)

Topics: history, sheep-production, geography, human-interest, australia