Municipality of Petersham Parish of Pete…

Extremely rare large scale map of Petersham which shows the municipality with its four wards at a scale of 1:3,960 (1 inch to 5 chains or 330 feet).

Petersham was constituted in 1871 with an area of 3.5 square kilometres, which included parts of the modern suburbs of Petersham, Stanmore, Dulwich Hill and Lewisham.  

Higinbotham, Robinson and Harrison (the third partner at the time) placed an advertisement on the inside back cover of their small atlas of Sydney suburbs maps published in 1886, for the sale of other large scale maps such is this one. We have located a number of examples in institutional collections but we rarely have seen any examples offered for public sale.

These large maps that the company had produced between 1882 and 1885, were substantial undertakings containing a wealth of information about streets and localities as well as the complex detail needed to record land ownership and subdivisions. They would have been a costly undertaking, with low demand given the specific nature of the maps and would have contributed to the downfall of the firm. By 1887 Harrison had withdrawn from the partnership and by 1888 Higinbotham and Robinson had been declared bankrupt. Part of the listed assets included the rights to twenty one real estate maps.