Planning the second series of the atlas of Australian resources

Summary

Plumb and Hazlewood explain planning and early production of the Atlas of Australian Resources, Second Series, and its accompanying commentary booklets as of September 1964. Assessment after the first series was completed in 1960 identified outdated maps and additional topics; retaining the production team also encouraged immediate continuation. The plan kept thirty sheets, with three replacements annually and a roughly ten-year renewal cycle. Most national maps retained 1:6 million, while selected topics used two regional enlargements at 1:4.5 million alongside a national map at 1:12 million. Some sheet reverses would carry detailed maps and source information. The authors describe replacing the polyconic projection with a simple equidistant conic projection, using standard parallels at 18° and 36°S and straight meridians suited to the enlargements. Geographers selected base-map detail, draftsmen plotted it on a 2° grid, and lettering and symbols distinguished settlement importance using the 1961 census. Coastlines were generalized and disused railways removed; the authors disagreed over adding selected roads. Each sheet would have a commentary booklet supplying supplementary information and interpretation, sometimes explaining data reliability. Invited writers could discuss topics more broadly than the mapped selections, while editors maintained consistency across the series. Subject planning aimed at a balance among physical characteristics, primary and secondary industries, and population and tertiary activities, constrained by staffing, costs and comparable data availability. Early sheets and plans covered electricity, fuels, soils, population distribution and growth, minerals, fisheries, geology and agriculture. The authors envisage a concise national first reference whose comparable small-scale maps complement thematic, regional and larger-scale mapping, and could become better-supported generalizations as detailed mapping expands.