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Description: This large beautifully hand coloured original & scarce antique map of New Holland also named Ulimaroa, New Zealand and the South Pacific by Franz Swoboda and Martin Hartl was published in Vienna in 1815 - dated.
General Description: Paper thickness and quality: - Heavy & stable Paper color: - White Age of map color: - Original Colors used: - Red, yellow General color appearance: - Authentic Paper size: - 27 1/4in x 22in (695mm x 560mm) Paper size: - 27in x 20 3/4in (685mm x 525mm) Margins: - Min 1/4in (7mm)
Imperfections: Margins: - None Plate area: - Vertical crease right image Verso: - None
This map is typical of the affect of Cooks discoveries on European cartography. Australia regularly became a focus on regional maps. The name "Ulimaroa" was often used, mainly by German & Austrian cartographers, at this time. It was term Cook learned from the New Zealand Maoris before discovering the east coast of Australia during his first voyage of discovery. When this map was printed there was a strong belief that the Australian continent was possibly divided by an internal sea strait, separating the east from the west coasts. It was explorers such as Flinders and Baudin who set out to find this elusive passage and if so the possible point at which a ship could enter. Only a few years before in 1798 Flinders and Bass had proved that there was a strait dividing Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) from the rest of the continent so now the race was on to find the other passage. On Swoboda’s map a line has been drawn from the bottom of Carpentaria to the eastern part of present day Victoria. This line represented two things, the potential shape of the eastern landmass split by the sea and the extent to English territory in the newly settled colonies, only 17 years old. The Southern Coastline is not shown as even though Flinders had by 1803 mapped the entire region he was in 1805 still under house arrest on the islands of Mauritius by the French, he would not publish his discoveries until 1814. Therefore this map shows Australia at a pivotal point in its history when most of the continent was still open for settlement by other nations and the coastlines and mysteries were still to be confirmed. (Ref: Clancy; M&B; Tooley)