Progress on Australia's national atlas

Summary

This paper reviews the progress of Australia's national atlas between 1960 and 1964. The first series of the Atlas of Australian Resources was completed in 1960, and work on the second series began in 1961, aiming to progressively replace the original thirty map-sheets. Most new sheets are revisions, while some address new topics, integrated with overall atlas revision to maintain a concise and balanced reference work. The second series retains the format, general style, and basic scale (1:6,000,000), but adopts a more suitable projection, revises the base map, designs special layouts for topics requiring larger scales, and uses the reverse of sheets for supplementary maps and references, while refining data, representation methods, and drawing and reproduction techniques. Additionally, regional atlases for Tasmania (fourth edition), New South Wales (first edition), and the Fitzroy Region of central Queensland have commenced, prepared by state governments and the Federal Department of National Development, respectively.