Detail View: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection: This Map of Van Diemen’s Land, is dedicated to the Land Holders of the Colony by their faithful servant George Frankland, Surveyor General and Sole Commissioner of Crown Lands.

Frankland , George (1800 - 1838)

1839

This Map of Van Diemen’s Land, is dedicated to the Land Holders of the Colony by their faithful servant George Frankland, Surveyor General and Sole Commissioner of Crown Lands.

Joseph Cross

London

Case Map

128

83

444,631

Australia

Hobart (Australia)

Launceston (Australia)

Tasmania (Australia)

This Map of Van Diemen’s Land, is dedicated to the Land Holders of the Colony by their faithful servant George Frankland, Surveyor General and Sole Commissioner of Crown Lands.

16206.002

2

Frankland , George (1800 - 1838)

1839

This Map of Van Diemen’s Land, is dedicated to the Land Holders of the Colony by their faithful servant George Frankland, Surveyor General and Sole Commissioner of Crown Lands.

British Library: Maps 92405.(2.); Royal Maritime Museum (Greenwich): HOP262:14/27; National Library of Australia: MAP F 862; State Library of Tasmania (2 examples): CRO 912.946 FRA, TL 912.946 FRA; Tasmanian Archives (2 examples): MAP1/1/5 and NS59/1/1; Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts (Hobart): STACK 912.946 FRA; Victoria State Library: MAPS 880 A 1839 FRANKLAND; University of Michigan: G 9060 1839 .F7; OCLC: 220799695; Eva BISCHOFF, Benevolent Colonizers in Nineteenth-Century Australia Quaker Lives and Ideals (2020), p. 101; P. R. ELDERSHAW, ‘Frankland, George (1800–1838)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1966), pp. 410-1; Philip HUTCH and Elaine STRATFORD, Landscape, Association, Empire Imagining Van Diemen’s Land (2023), p. 87; F. W. NICHOLAS and Jan NICHOLAS, Charles Darwin in Australia (2008), p. 137; R.V. TOOLEY, The Printed Maps of Tasmania: A Chronological List from 1777- 1900 (1963), no. 230; R.V. TOOLEY, The Mapping of Australia (1979), no. 605; Laurence WORMS & Ashley BAYNTON-WILLIAMS, British Map Engravers (2011), pp. 171.

"Copper engraving, with original full hand colour, dissected into 40 sections and mounted upon original linen, folding into original green patterned cloth slipcase with printed pastedown paper label to upper cover, inner sleave of slipcase bearing the manuscript owner’s inscription of “F. F. Whitfield, 1842” A landmark in the historical cartography of Tasmania, being the first general survey map of Van Diemen’s Land, predicated upon trigonometrical work and frontier reconnaissance expeditions conducted between 1828 and 1837 by George Frankland, the island’s surveyor genera,; featuring a meticulously detailed and accurate rendering of the critical Hobart-Launceston Corridor, as well as the first broadly accurate portrayal of the hinterland beyond, augmented by two stellar city plans of the island’s main cities, Launceston and Hobart; engraved and published in London by Joseph Cross, the ‘boutique’ specialist publisher of Australian cartography, with the present work featuring his signature palette of resplendent wash colours – Rare. This impressive, very large format map represents the first general scientific survey of Tasmania, predicated upon trigonometrical surveys of the settled areas and reconnaissance expeditions into the hinterlands, conducted between 1828 and 1837 by George Frankland, the colony’s surveyor general. The survey was initially published in Hobart, to a smaller scale, in April 1837. The present example of the map is of the enlarged edition, engraved and printed in London in 1839 by Joseph Cross, the ‘boutique’ specialist publisher of Australian cartography, employing his signature palette of resplendent wash colours. The beautifully engraved map showcases all Van Diemen’s Land, with its well-settled areas comprising a corridor running down through the eastern heart of the island, extending from the Tamar River, in the north, down past Hobart, in the south. The island is captured at a critical historical juncture, after virtually all its Aboriginal inhabitants had (horrifically) been killed or exiled in the wake of the Black War (1820s - 1832), while its fast-growing white settler population reached 50,000, as the colony had progressed upon its transition from a penal colony to society of free men. The map provides a wealth of fascinating details. The complex, craggy coastlines of Van Diemen’s Land are precisely delineated, with the sea outlined in bright blue, featuring many notes on the navigability of rivers; the suitably of harbours (ex. “Safe Anchorage & fine Timber”); headlands (ex. Cape Pillar, at the island’s southeastern point, is described as being “Visible 12 leagues”); and other key locations (ex. the “Wreck of the Wallace”, near Sterile Island at entrance of D’Entrecateaux Sound and the “Anchorage of Tasman in 1642”, near Point Lamanon on Forrestiers Peninsula). Inlands, rivers and lakes are defined, while named highlands are expressed by hachures, while some areas feature notes on land quality (ex. ‘Barren Hills interspersed with Forest’). As the ‘Explanation’ below the title indicates, the eastern half of the island is shown to be divided into eleven counties as delineated in 1836, with each bathed in the own brilliant hues of wash colour, while the sparsely developed western half is left unorganized. Else, different fonts identify Hundreds and Parishes, while townships are shown as tracts shaded in; Reserves for Townships are shown as empty tracts; while Roads are traced, towns are depicted, and rural homesteads are labeled with the names of their owners. The Hobart-Launceston corridor is shown to be meticulously mapped, in stellar accuracy, as Frankland had trigonometrically surveyed these areas, while the sparsely settled hinterlands beyond were mapped during exploring expeditions to less exacting standards. In the latter vein, the map features notes, such as that to the to the east of Lake St. Clair, “First visited by the expedition under Mr. Frankland 1835”, and near Mount Anne, in the far west of Buckingham County, “Expedition of 1835”. The still lightly settled northwestern part of the island is shown to be the domain of the Van Diemen’s Land Company, a private agrarian corporation founded in 1825, which was granted a 250,000-acre tract for the settlement of immigrant farmers who could produce wool to sell to the British textile industry. The map labels the ‘Van Diemen’s Land Company’s Road’, running from the settled corridor west to the Surrey Hills area. A highlight of the composition is the inclusion of two large inset city plans, in the lower corners, of Van Diemen’s Land’s two main cities: Launceston and Hobart Town. The maps, based upon Frankland’s own manuscript surveys, are of very high quality and are highly detailed, labelling all streets, delineating all cadastral lots and outlining and naming all major buildings. Frankland’s map represents a great advance from the previous base map of the island, Joseph Cross’s Chart of Van Dieman’s Land compiled from the Most Authentic Documents Extant (London, 1826) and its derivatives, which were anchored in the surveys of Thomas Scott, the then Surveyor General of the island. George Frankland: Pioneering Scientific Surveyor of Tasmania George Frankland (1800 - 1838), who became the Assistant Surveyor-General of Van Diemen’s Land in 1826, before being promoted to Surveyor General in 1828, was a highly intelligent and energetic man, who preferred action in the field to politics and office work. A native of Somerset, England, he hailed from an upper-class, well-connected family, and served in the army in India, before arriving in Van Diemen’s Land with stellar recommendations from his family’s elite friends. Lieutenant-Governor Sir George Arthur of Van Diemen’s Land, recognizing that major gaps in the geographical knowledge of the island were hindering development, tasked Frankland with conducting a full trigonometrical survey of the colony. Hitherto, while the island’s coats had been scientifically charted by the Royal Navy, inland only a motley assortment of surveys had been conducted, ranging from reasonably good cadastral surveys of the Hobart-Launceston corridor to very crude reconnaissance mapping of the hinterland areas, while many large tracts in western Van Diemen’s Land had never been mapped whatsoever. If Frankland could accomplish his monumental task, it would bring the cartography of the island to whole new level, making it the best-mapped region of Australia. Frankland conducted exacting trigonometrical survey of the Hobart-Launceston corridor, before continuing his work on the mapping of the hinterland. There, he organized exploration expeditions, recognizing the profound scientific importance of recoding the amazing flora, fauna and geology, as well as making observations on the remaining Aboriginal peoples. He described his discoveries in his journals, which are today of great academic significance. Importantly, in February 1836, Frankland hosted Charles Darwin for three days when the HMS Beagle visited Hobart. Darwin recalled that he and Frankland took “some long pleasant walks examining the Geology of the country” by the Derwent River. One night Darwin dined at the Surveyor General’s home, an occasion he described as one of “the most agreeable evenings since leaving England”. However, the polymath scope of Frankland’s expeditions seemingly retarded the progress of his trigonometrical surveying work in the deep interior, such that he never completed his task of systematically and scientifically surveying the entire island as planned. He was harshly criticized in some quarters for this, yet he defended himself by claiming (not without some merit) that many of the previous surveys of the island were so badly executed that he needed to re-do supposedly completed tasks, so making his workload unmanageable. This all being said, what Frankland accomplished in terms of his surveying mandate was still truly impressive, as he precisely defined the Hobart-Launceston corridor for the first time, while revolutionizing the mapping of the rest of the island, eliminating the many existing cartographic misconceptions of the interior. Frankland’s map, bearing the same title as the present issue, was first published in 1837 by the author, in Hobart, in a charmingly crude form of lithography, to the scale of 1. inches to 10 miles (1:506,880). Please see an image of this map, courtesy of the Tasmanian Land and Surveys Department: https://librariestas.ent.sirsidynix.net.au/client/en_AU/all/search/detailnonmodal/ent:$ 002f$002fARCHIVES_DIGITISED$002f0$002fARCHIVES_DIG_DIX:AF395-1-5/ one?qu=frankland&qu=map In 1839, the present edition of the map, faithful to the Hobart issue in its content, was engraved and published in London by John Cross, to the larger scale of circa 1:444,631, plus adding the city plans of Hobart and Launceston. No further editions of Frankland’s map proper were issued, although it spawned many derivatives. Enlightened people, with a proper appreciation of Frankland’s work highly praised his map. Notably, Robert William Hay, the Colonial Under-Secretary, excitedly told Frankland that “Your Map is by far the most valuable contribution that has been received at the Colonial Office from any of the Colonies during my time”. In his article on Frankland in the Australian Dictionary of Biography, P.R. Eldershaw correctly observed that Frankland’s “map remained the best for twenty years”. Several of Frankland’s original manuscript survey maps used to create his grand general map of Van Diemen’s Land are preserver today in the archives of the Tasmanian Land and Surveys Department. Tragically, Frankland did not live to enjoy the legacy of his masterpiece, as he died of influenza at the end of 1838, aged only 38 years. Yet, he accomplished more in his short life than what would otherwise have taken generations. The present example of the map bears the manuscript label “F. F. Whitfield, 1842” upon the sleave of the slipcase. This refers to Frederick Francis Whitfield, a physician, originally from Ashford, Kent, who graduated from the College of Surgeons (London), in 1836. Not long thereafter, Whitfield immigrated to Van Diemen’s Land where he worked in his profession. In 1847, he is recorded as working as medical doctor and a colonial assistant-surgeon (coroner), based in Southport, in the far south of the island (Van Diemen’s Land Royal Kalendar and Almanack (Launceston: Printed and sold by Henry Dowling, 1847), p. 101) and is referred to in other sources as being an expert medical witness in court cases on the island as late as 1857. A Note on Rarity The map is rare. We can trace 11 institutional examples, held by the British Library; Royal Maritime Museum (Greenwich); National Library of Australia; State Library of Tasmania (2 examples); Tasmanian Archives (2 examples); Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts (Hobart); State Library of New South Wales; Victoria State Library; and the University of Michigan. Moreover, we are aware of only a few sales records for other examples of the map from the last 25 years. The 1837 Hobart edition of the map is an extreme rarity. Joseph Cross: Boutique Specialist on Australian Cartography Joseph Cross (fl. 1816 - 1854) was a boutique London map publisher, with premises at 18 Holborn, who specialized in the cartography of Australia. His works are known for their crisp, elegant engraving and exceptionally lovely colouring, while Cross had privileged access to the best manuscripts and intelligence arriving from Down Under. Cross published many of the era’s landmark maps of Australia. In addition to the present map, these include: Map of Part of New South Wales embellished with views in the harbour of Port Jackson (1825); Chart of Van Dieman’s Land compiled from the Most Authentic Documents Extant (1826); Plan of the Australian Agricultural Company’s Grant at Port Stephens (1828); Chart of Swan & Canning Rivers on the Western Coast of Australia (1829); Map of the South West part of Australia, with the Latest Discoveries (1833); Robert Dixon’s This Map of the Colony of New South Wales, Exhibiting the Situation and Extent of the Appropriated Lands including the Counties, Towns, Village Reserves &c. (1837); General Map of Australia (c. 1838); Chart of Part of New South Wales, with plans of the harbours (1839); North West Quarter of Van Diemen’s Land: including the grants of land belonging to the Van Diemen‘s Land Company (1842). Cross also issued several works on his home city, including The Parish of Lambeth, divided into Ecclesiastical Districts (1824); Cross’s New Plan of London (1828, revised in several subsequent issues); and Cross’s London Guide (c. 1851). Additionally, he also published maps of overseas lands other than Australia, including A Map of the Company’s Tract of Land in the Province of New Brunswick: New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company (1834). Historical Context: The Rise and Consolidation of Colonial Tasmania The Aboriginal people of Van Diemen’s Land lived there for over 30,000 years. The first European to visit the island was Abel Tasman in 1642, who named it after Anthony van Diemen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. It would not be encountered again until the visit of the French explorer Marc-Joseph Marion de Fresne in 1772, who was followed by Tobias Furneaux, in 1773, and James Cook, in 1777. In 1798, Matthew Flinders and James Bass sailed through the Bass Strait, proving Van Diemen’s Land to be an island. Whalers and sealers established a transient presence on the island around the same time. During the early colonial period, the British considered Van Diemen’s Land to be a part of New South Wales. To preempt a possible French move on the island, the authorities in Sydney decided to solidify their claim by establishing penal colonies on Van Diemen’s Land. The first such settlement was established at ‘Risdon’, on the Derwent River, in 1803, however it was soon moved down and across the river to ‘Sullivan’s Cove’, which developed into the island’s capital, Hobart. In 1804, George Town, near the mouth of the Tamar River was established. Another convict colony was soon established at Macquarie Harbour, while the town of Launceston, on the Tamar, which later became the island’s second city, was founded in 1806. In the early years, life on Van Diemen’s Land was very difficult, a farming took hold only slowly. Moreover, relations between the convicts and the first free settlers, on one side, and the Aboriginal peoples, on the other, was acrimonious, resulting in any violent alterations. The native people’s numbers were also depleted due to their lack of immunity to European diseases. In 1819, the island was home to 5,000 Europeans, and a roughly equal number of Aboriginals. In 1820, to shore up Van Diemen’s Land, the New South Wales authorities decided upon a major policy change. Henceforth, free British settlers would be attracted to the island, who hopefully become self-sufficient, with the view of making a transition from a penal environment into a conventional settler colony. Meanwhile, Britain had experienced high unemployment and a weak economy in the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, such that thousands of Britons were attracted to move to Van Diemen’s Land, lured by free land, gratis or cheap convict labour, and life in a mild climate like that of home. So many new settlers arrived by 1822, that the Tamar-Hobart corridor was divided into land districts (like townships, or small counties), and by 1824 the European population had reached 12,600 (plus 200,000 sheep and cattle!). In 1825, Van Diemen’s Land was severed from New South Wales and made its own crown colony. Around the sale time the authorities embarked upon the Black War (mid-1820s to 1832), a brutal campaign to eliminate the Aboriginal presence from the island. Indeed, by the end of the conflict, the entire native population had either been killed or exiled, leaving the island totally under British domination. Today, these events are a horrible stain upon Australian history. Throughout the period, the settler population continued to rise, reaching 24,000 in 1830, accounting for one-third of the entire European population of Australia. In 1831, Van Diemen’s Land stopped issuing free land grants and hitherto sold plots. Tragically, by 1835, all the remaining Aboriginal peoples on the island surrendered to the colonial authorities and were promptly deported, so ending a 3,000-year-long civilization. The first official census of Van Diemen’s Land, conducted in 1842, recorded the island as having a population of 57,471. By 1856, the colony completed its transformation from a penal colony into modern land of free settlers, and was given responsible government with a bicameral legislature, while assuming the new name of ‘Tasmania’ (to mark its break from its ‘convict’ past). In the coming decades, Tasmania prospered greatly due to the global commodities boom. It joined the Australian federation in 1901." (Alexander Johnson/Dasa Pahor, 2024)

16206.000

Case Map

22

14

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Frankland , George (1800 - 1838)