New South Wales : map, illustrations and descriptive text.

[Cover title]. Sydney : Thomas Richards, Govt. Printer, 1884. Quarto (290 x 240 mm), publisher’s pictorial green cloth over boards with bevelled edges, the upper board with blind-blocked decoration and lettering in gilt and black (scattered light staining), inside upper board with contextual map of the Eastern Hemisphere illustrating shipping routes from London to Sydney, inside lower board with plan of the central portion of Sydney; folded lithographed sheet, 890 x 620 mm, folding to 290 x 240 mm, printed on both sides, with a map designed by Critchett Walker titled New South Wales: railway lines completed or in course of construction, principal districts traversed, populations, distances, &c. &c., which has two cartouche illustrations and a smaller inset map, and is accompanied by text titled Principal towns & districts in New South Wales possessing railway communication with Sydney; verso has the heading ‘New South Wales’, under which the extensive text is divided into sections titled Character of climate; Progress of population; Pastoral resources; Minerals and mining industries; Principal manufactures; Shipping and commercial; Railway progress; Agricultural capabilities; Educational institutions; Social statistics; New South Wales compared with leading countries of Europe; Emigration arrangements; Sydney, the capital of New South Wales; with illustrations of the Colonial Secretary’s office; General Post Office; Botanic Gardens; Circular Quay; Australian Museum; and Watson’s Bay, along with a Diagram showing the area and population of New South Wales compared with those of other countries; some minor tears at junctions of the folds, otherwise very good condition.

Critchett Walker, a senior New South Wales civil servant, was a founding member of the Australasian Geographical Society and a New South Wales Commissioner for various exhibitions in the 1880s. Certainly idiosyncratic in terms of its design, his publication New South Wales proudly promoted the colony to the world, presenting many of its different aspects in a digestible nutshell whilst managing to emphasise its rate of technological and industrial progress.