This unique hand-written and hand-painted map was made for a specific purpose, used once and put away in a map drawer.

The map was made in 1852, at Governor Charles La Trobe’s instructions, by the staff of the Surveyor General’s Department of the Colony of Victoria, especially surveyors Robert Hoddle and William Urquhart and draughtsman, C A C Bayly.

It was made for the newly appointed Geological Surveyor, Alfred Selwyn, who arrived to take up his post in November of that year. Selwyn’s position had been created because of the discovery of gold in Victoria, and the map is centred on Mt Alexander because of its proximity to the goldfields of Castlemaine and Bendigo.