Book reviews: Atlas of Australian resources, 2nd series

H. Kanow reviews the second instalment of five sheets of the Atlas of Australian Resources, issued by the Department of National Development under K. Frenzel’s direction: relief, population change in 1933–1947, forests, roads and airfields, and railways. He refers readers to Frenzel’s published account of the atlas’s preparation, intended tasks, content, projection, scale, cartographic treatment, colour and reproduction. The review examines elevation tints and hill shading, population symbols that permit comparison with the earlier density map, forest colours showing structure and economic use, roads over a population-density base, and railway symbols recording goods and transport direction. Kanow praises the clear relationships between rainfall and forests, settlement and roads, and production and transport, while criticizing some brown elevation tones, excessive shading and faint airfield symbols. He finds the base-map drawing improved over the first instalment and credits Australian specialists with the individual map commentaries. He concludes that the maps deepen knowledge of Australia and its problems and highly values the cultural contribution of a German geographer working abroad.