Map of Northern Territory

One of the most detailed colonial maps of the entire Northern Territory showing the tracks of various explorers between 1856 and 1878, notably those of John McDouall Stuart in 1860-1 and McKinley in 1866.

In 1859, the South Australia government offered a £2000 reward to the first person who could cross Australia from south to north. With that in mind, John McDouall Stuart, already a noted explorer, began his expedition one year later, and became the first European to reach the centre of Australia in 1861 and the first to cross the continent south to north in 1862. His inland expedition from Adelaide to Port Darwin sparked a flurry of interest in the Northern Territory and there were numerous subsequent expeditions in the 1860s and 70s. These maps by John Sands contain information gathered from these explorations and depict the most up-to-date knowledge of the area.

From the first atlas of the continent issued in Australia and the only series of maps of the nineteenth century to show details of the Northern Territory counties.