Lost for hundred of years , a late recover mathematical function of Australia date back to the 17th century has finally been reestablish and put on display at a museum in Canberra . The document chronicles the mapping efforts of IE a full 100 years before Captain James Cook localize sail for the Pacific .
It ’s shout out Archipelagus Orientalis ( Eastern Archipelago ) , and it was create by master map maker Joan Blaeu in 1663 . The document , know as the Blaeu map , was re - fall upon in 2010 in a Swedish storage warehouse where the document had been languishing for C of age . Yesterday , after four years of meticulous conservation to stabilize the frail papers , the map returned to its new home at the National Library of Australia in Canberra .
The map is significant because it ’s the first to show ( most ) of the Australian coastline in detail , and because it was created more than a hundred class before British explorer Captain James Cook made his famous voyages through the part in the 1770s . The map is also notable in that it includes the first sightings of Tasmania by Abel Tasman ’s crew aboard the Zeehaen in 1642 , while also document the Dutch discovery of Australia . This single-valued function of “ New Holland , ” as it was called back then , measure 46 inch by 60 inches ( 1185 mm x 1520 mm ) , and it was used a templet for all of Australia until the times of Cook ’s voyage .
Martin Woods , a curator of maps at the National museum , says the mapping was drawn using thousands of measurements made during about a XII Dutch voyages , mostly by the Dutch East India party , over the course of three decades . talk to The Canberra Times , Woodssaid :
It ’s like a giant news show map , if you care . There ’s so much information in the textual matter around the map , from trading chance to details of the voyages , even the illustrations of the ships in battle , all paint a mental picture of what was happening . [ … ]
Although in this map Australia is the centre of attending , to Blaeu and his countryman it was a puzzle . They cruised the seacoast , they cruised the north , the Dixie , the W , appear for trading opportunity , occasionally land , not finding people with good they accredit they could trade with , sailing off again . Some twelvemonth afterward curiosity would get the better of them and another voyage would pass off and this pattern go along until they decide to concentrate their efforts in the Spice Islands [ in Indonesia ] and they left this enigma of Australia alone .
Blaeu ’s Map will be on showing as part of the museum ’s map Our World exhibition in the Library ’s Treasures Gallery until next year .
[ National Library of Australia , Canberra Times ]
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