The State Library of Victoria has just reached a significant milestone, having now digitised over 30,000 maps and plans. The library's maps and plans are being digitised in the Library’s Imaging Studio and Scanning Studio by their Digital Production team.
Australian maps, especially those covering Victoria, are the main focus of this collection, though the Library also has many maps from overseas.
As well as a total of over 110,000 maps – enough to carpet metropolitan Melbourne – the physical collection includes geographical and cartographic reference books and atlases.
There is a wealth of rare and antique maps in the collection, including maps showing the first outlines of the Australian coast, charts by Matthew Flinders and early Dutch maps. The 19th-century township, parish, county and squatting maps can provide all sorts of leads for those investigating their family history.
Drainage plans produced by the Melbourne and Metropolitan Board of Works (MMBW) from the late 19th century to the 1940s give a fascinating historical record of Melbourne streetscapes and features.
There are several thousand auction plans showing the layout of suburban estates, and large collections of fire insurance plans, aerial photographs, geological and goldmining maps. The library also holds topographic maps from government agencies such as Land Victoria and Geoscience Australia.
Significant overseas holdings include maps by the British Ordnance Survey, nautical charts covering all corners of the globe, and 19th-century maps of India.
As the selection of maps and plans which have been digitised grows they are made available online through the library's online catalogue, including the majority of their historical Victorian county and parish maps, MMBW, auction and fire insurance plans.
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