Map of the settled districts around Melbourne in the Colony of Victoria

Compiled from the most authentic sources by A. Purchas, C. E. Melbourne  : James J. Blundell & Co., 1854. Engraved map, printed by Tulloch Brown, 46.5 x 74.3 cm, dissected and laid on linen, in very good condition; housed in the original plum cloth case with lettered title label (stained).

On first examining this early map, which extends from Little River in the southwest to View Hill Creek in the northeast, and from Gisborne in the northwest to Dandenong in the southeast, one of the things that strikes us is the preponderance of Aboriginal names – in particular, those used for the Colony’s Electoral Districts. A number of Aboriginal reserves (or stations) had been established under the Protectorate system that had been in place in the Port Phillip District from 1839 until 1849; on this 1854 map we find a large tract of land set aside in the Healesville area on the Upper Yarra, denoted here simply as ‘Reserve for Aborigines’, on which Coranderrk Station would be opened in 1863. On Bunurong country, the Dandenong Police Reserve –  the base for the Native Police Corps, and formerly the Protectorate Station for the Westernport District – is marked in the southeastern corner of the map. The already vast network of land allotments criss-crossing Melbourne and surrounding districts, along with the surveys and pastoral stations that dot them, are indicated in detail.

Rare. Only four copies recorded in Australian collections.