Survey Queensland history at new look Lands Museum

Some of Queensland’s historical treasures are now on display at the newly relaunched Museum of Lands, Mapping and Surveying at the Landcentre at Woolloongabba.

Minister for Natural Resources and Mines Andrew Cripps said the museum served as a reminder of the history of land, resource and agricultural development in Queensland.

“The Newman Government committed at the election to grow the resources and agriculture industries as part of Queensland’s four economic pillars,” Mr Cripps said.

“Much like the former government’s disregard for these industries, the museum was hidden away in the basement of the Landcentre.

“We have now brought it upstairs, upgraded the existing displays and created new ones to improve what is undoubtedly one of the best collections of its type in the world.”

Mr Cripps said the museum was home to very valuable and historically important items, much of which was collected by one of the museum’s founders and its first curator, Bill Kitson.

“One of the treasures to be housed here is a drawing set owned and used by the region’s first surveyor Robert Dixon who was sent here in 1839 to commence surveying,” he said.

“The set comprises the oldest drafting instruments with a clear connection to Queensland known to exist and would have been used to draw the area’s first survey plans and two maps of the Moreton Bay colony produced by Dixon in the 1840s.

“Dixon’s work was the first time that anyone had accurately mapped the area from what is now the Gold Coast north to Caloundra and west to the Great Dividing Range, allowing the government of the day to assess what land was available for settlement.”

Mr Cripps said the drawing set was just one of the numerous artefacts, photographs, newspaper clippings, artwork, books and other material on display at the museum.

“Among the many fascinating items on display are examples of the tools used by the first surveyors to measure distances and angles.

“An original album of sketches drawn by prominent surveyor Alfred Hull in the 1870s over the Cardwell area includes what is thought to be only surviving image of the first Cardwell Jetty which was destroyed by a cyclone in 1890.

“In 1894, Queensland was the first colony to adopt a meridian for a standard time zone and the clock that provided the State’s standard time service from 1895 through to the 1970s is on display.”

More information about the museum can be found on the Department of Natural Resources and Mines website – http://www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/mapping-data/maps/research-history

[ENDS] 10 March 2014

Media contact: Kate Haddan 0418 373 516