Carlos Victor Smitz (1936-2023)
Belatedly we sadly report the passing of Carlos on 4 August 2023. His funeral was held on 7 August in Canberra. Our condolences to his family.
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Busy Wires by Keith Clarke
The 150th anniversary of the completion of the Overland Telegraph Line, connecting Darwin and Adelaide, was celebrated in 2022. The more than 3 000 kilometre line was made up of 36 000 telegraph poles with 11 repeater stations, needed to boost the signal, staggered 200 kilometres apart. The Overland Telegraph line is widely acknowledged as the greatest engineering feat of the 19th century in Australia. This 1991 publication provided a brief history of the telegraph in Australia.
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Australia's National R502 Map Series : A Tribute to the Forgotten Mappers of the Ghastly Blank
This article by Paul Wise, was originally presented titled Australia's First 1: 250 000 Scale, Uniform Topographic Map Coverage : The R502 Story. Since then additional information has been discovered that has enhanced the history of this era of mapping.
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WILD Heerbrugg Model T4 Universal Theodolite : their known Australian history
Wild produced a total of 439 model T4 theodolites between 1941 and 1981, of which it appears that four were used operationally in Australia. All four T4's still exist and as little was documented, this article attempts to summarise the use of the T4 by the respective agencies.
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Australian Primary Data Acquisition Progress Maps for Topographic Mapping 1827-1988
While there were various maps showing a south land from antiquity and the later navigator/explorers, these maps were mostly of coastline. Some forty years after the First Fleet arrived, in 1827 then Major (later Sir) Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792-1855) as Surveyor General saw the first systematic surveying and mapping of Australia. After that, settlement drove the need for mapping. As the XNATMAP website enters it fifteenth year an accumulation of information on Australian primary data acquisition for topographic mapping, gathered and standardised during those years, is presented by Paul Wise.
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