Mar 2017 speaker

Early Maps of Moreton Bay

Donna Holmes, past BIHS president

Guest speaker at BIHS meeting March 2017

At our March meeting past BIHS president Donna Holmes, through a PowerPoint presentation, gave us a glimpse of early maps of Moreton Bay, identifying the change of the spelling of Morton to Moreton and the "moving" of Moreton Bay from the western side of Moreton Island to the bay encircled by Moreton and Stradbroke Islands.

Donna presented some rare maps advising she had purchased them (in digital format) from UK and Australian archives. Donna advised that in a lot of cases she buys maps sight unseen only going by the references made – unfortunately some images are not what she has hoped they would be, but luckily some are gems.

Maps shown were from expeditions by Captains Cook, Flinders, Grant and the 1823 Oxley expedition. An interesting map from 1803, by Eber Bunker, a captain of a whaling vessel was shown.

Donna finished the presentation by showing the earliest images of Australia appearing on Dutch and French maps.

These latter maps can be viewed on the website of the Queensland Lands Museum:
1550 - LaTerre Australle (Desceliers) [French]

 1650 - Mardi India (Jansson) [French]

1753 - Terres Australes (Bellin) [French/Dutch]

Acknowledgement:

Early exploration maps – available online Queensland Lands Museum

https://www.qld.gov.au/recreation/arts/heritage/museum-of-lands/maps-plans/early-exploration/ 

References:

Blair, David (2009) Moreton Bay – the Bay that moved.

Placenames Australia: newsletter of the Australian National Placenames Survey, June 2009, p. 1, 3, 7. [available online at www.anps.org.au/news.html ]

Steele, J.G. (1972) The Explorers of the Moreton Bay District 1770-1830. Brisbane: University of Queensland Press, 1972.