Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Map of Brisbane Town, Moreton Bay

Map of Brisbane Town, Moreton Bay

1839
Manuscript map
Bequest of Sir William Dixson, 1952
DL Z/Cc 83/2

This is the earliest known map of Brisbane. It was drawn by colonial engineer George Barney to accompany a report sent to Governor Gipps in May 1839, less than a year after the settlement had been opened up to free settlers. By the beginning of July, all convicts except those considered essential for assisting with surveying and other government work had been removed.*

The Brisbane area was first settled by the British in 1824, when a penal colony for repeat offenders was established there under the direction of Sir Thomas Brisbane, then governor of NSW. Along with Norfolk Island, it gained a reputation as one of the harshest penal settlements in the colony.

Brisbane was part of NSW until 1859, when Queensland was established as a self-governing British colony, separate from NSW.

Defence of the shores

Captain George Barney was Australia’s first colonial engineer. When he arrived in Sydney with his family in December 1844, he was 44 and had served in the Royal Engineers for 26 years. As colonial engineer, he was responsible for defence works along the colony’s east coast and was associated with the design and construction of many building projects in Sydney, including Circular Quay, the barracks at Georges Head and the barracks on Cockatoo Island.

Barney was also put in charge of completing the Newcastle breakwater, which was built largely by convict labour: at the time, there were 354 male convicts in Newcastle, and vast majority worked on the project. In 1836 under Barney’s orders, stone for the breakwater was quarried from Nobbys island. Views of Newcastle harbour from this time on show the island reduced to about two-thirds its original height. By 1846 the causeway between the mainland and Nobbys was complete.