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All Australia Brisbane Museum of Lands, Mapping, and Surveying

Museum of Lands, Mapping, and Surveying

Its collection highlights the monumental tasks undertaken to map Queensland.

Brisbane, Australia

Added By
James T. Bartlett
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The museum has other letters, mementoes and equipment.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
  Michael Reinhardt / Atlas Obscura User
Pioneer draftswoman Doris Lavarack is celebrated.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
  jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Equipment and work from the days long before GPS.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
One of several theodolites.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Measuring chains.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Mile 38 Border Post from 1880.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
Pegs, pins, rocks, and trees all had their function in mapping the hundreds of thousands of miles of new Queensland.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
  Michael Reinhardt / Atlas Obscura User
Museum of Lands, Mapping, and Surveying.   jbartlett2000 / Atlas Obscura User
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In 1859, Queensland was declared a separate colony from New South Wales. From 1879 to 1881, part of the new border was officially surveyed. As evidenced by its name, the mile 38 post was placed 38 miles east of Barringun by Surveyor Cameron in 1880. It's one of several unusual historical border markers at the Museum of Lands, Mapping, and Surveying.

The museum, which was established in 1982, contains a small series of exhibits illuminating the huge task that surveyors, cartographers, geographers, and photographers had to undertake in Queensland (a territory covering over 700,000 square miles) over the decades. The difficulty of the task is tough to imagine in the age of GPS and Google, when paper maps are all but a memory for many.

The museum features a range of historical telescopes, measuring instruments, equipment, photos, and of course maps. A display at the entrance highlights Doris Lavarack, who in 1929 became one of the early draftswomen at the Queensland Survey Office. The museum also holds the Clem Jones collection. Jones was a veteran surveyor and the mayor of Brisbane from 1961 to 1975.

Near a trio of different-sized grandfather clocks are the border posts, which tend to catch the eye. The pegs, pins, rocks, and trees all had their functions in mapping and measuring what must have seen like endless land.

Related Tags

Museums Museums And Collections Maps Geology Geographic Markers

Know Before You Go

Entrance to the museum is free. It's open Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.  and is closed on public holidays.

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jbartlett2000

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Michael Reinhardt

  • Michael Reinhardt

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October 25, 2019

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Museum of Lands, Mapping, and Surveying
317 Edward St
Brisbane, 4000
Australia
-27.465158, 153.025016
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