Australia's Resources Atlas

Summary

This article provides a detailed account of the preparation and content of the first edition of the Atlas of Australian Resources, Australia's first national atlas. The project was initiated in earnest in early 1951 by the Department of National Development, with the appointment of Dr. Konrad Frenzel, a German geographer, as editor. Publication of all thirty map-sheets was completed in September 1960. The Atlas employs a polyconic projection at a scale of 1:6,000,000, comprising a total of 82 maps across thirty sheets, each accompanied by a commentary booklet averaging about 7,000 words, supplemented with statistical tables, diagrams, and additional small maps. The preparation was undertaken by a small team of never more than seven geographers and cartographic draughtsmen, who worked closely with government departments, universities, and private organisations to gather data on topics such as soils, geology, vegetation, population, primary and secondary industries, and services. The article describes in detail the technical processes involved, including data collection, experimentation with representation methods, compilation drawing, fair drawing on Astralon, photographic reduction, scribing, and printing by nine different printers using up to fifteen colours. It also reviews each thematic map individually, discussing the content and cartographic techniques used for maps covering land use, agriculture, forestry, power and fuel, manufacturing, population density and distribution, population change, immigration, transport, education, health services, and major developmental projects. The author emphasises the challenge of balancing detail with generality to serve a wide range of needs. In conclusion, the Atlas is recognised as a significant achievement in bringing together previously scattered and incomparable information about the continent, serving primarily as a convenient and readily understood background reference, despite its limited direct use as a planning tool due to the necessary degree of generalisation at the chosen scale.