This thesis proposes that maps contain much more than just a depiction of physical space. Focusing on a selection of maps of ‘Australia’, the following attributes are found in some of these maps: myth and imagination, memory, power and the evolution of a people’s relationship with a place. Each attribute is the centrepiece of a separate chapter. The investigation undertaken here begins before ‘Australia’ was a known, named and mapped identity, at least as far as Europe was concerned, and continues up to the present day. It moves from maps of the imagined, the unknown and the theoretical, the science of cosmography, to chorography, which concerns maps of the local and the known. Cosmography operates on the grandest scale attempting to depict the whole world whereas chorography attempts to map details that can be recognised on the land. The words cosmography and chorography have fallen into disuse but the meanings of both were re-examined for this work, allowing for a unique mapping picture to emerge. The dance between these two kinds of mapping is the methodological pivot around which this thesis revolves. Chapter one begins in the theoretical realm of cosmography with the creation of the Antipodes, an idea that arose as a consequence of classical and Hellenistic Greek philosophical and theoretical concepts. This land only existed on maps yet came to harbour myths and imaginary attributes. Although replaced by Terra Australis Incognita, fantasy and myth continued to inhabit this southern part of the mapped world. Explorers eroded the unknown until a European chorographical destination, Botany Bay, was mapped into place. The dance then began all over again across the landmass called ‘Australia’ as the boundary between the known and unknown was crossed and mapped. Chapter two is a detailed study of the minutiae on chorographical maps of the Burragorang Valley and surrounding area. The names used for various geographical features are shown to contain memories of past inhabitants both Aboriginal and European. These memories still exist on maps of this area whereas the land the maps depict has been radically altered by the inclusion of man-made lake that has all but removed the earlier human marks on the landscape. The power embedded in both cosmographical and chorographical maps is examined in chapter three. In 1493 Pope Alexander VI drew a line on a cosmographical map and ‘donated’ half the non-Christian world to Spain and half to Portugal, thus commencing a process whereby a few European Christian nations carved up the rest of the world with the help of the authority vested in cosmographical maps. This culminated, as far as Australia was concerned, with Lieutenant James Cook’s map of the east coast of New Holland, which enabled the British Crown to claim land to the east of the 135th meridian, the line Alexander VI had drawn. Within sixty years this claim had expanded and covered the whole of the Australian landmass. On the ground, chorography recorded each individual parcel of land as it changed from Aboriginal land to European property. In chapter four, the concern is the way maps facilitated an evolving relationship between European Australians and the land they came to inhabit rather than the use of the maps in colonial appropriation. The focus in this chapter is on marginal lands where little European involvement is evident either on the ground or on the map. Because it is here in less trampled areas that any European marker on a map becomes important, and because there are so few of these markers, it is possible to trace the way these key features have evolved and have taken on a new significance over time. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/244504 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Coppard, Sally A., University of Western Sydney, College of Arts, Education and Social Sciences |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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