The Ten States of Australia

[alanro]

This map, dated 1838, shows an earlier proposal for the subdivision of Australia into 10 states. It was published by the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society in London, and accompanied an article entitled Considerations on the Political Geography and Geographical Nomenclature of Australia

Comments

[randy_byers]

Fascinating that Victoria and Tasmania were two of the proposed state names, but in completely different areas than the states that ended up with those names.

[numbat]

That's an interesting attempt to divide up Australia but clearly it was based upon aesthetic considerations rather than practical ones. Neat as those divisions look they wouldn't of worked for various reasons. Some of the propsed states for example would not have been viable due to few immigrants and fewer resources. Neither would there have been to political will to create most of those states. The six colonies that became the original six states are all based upon a port city. Without a port city to back a proposed state it seems unlikely that there would be much support for the creation of said state.

[kalimac]

It's an example of Square Disease. Thomas Jefferson had a case of Square Disease that he applied to the (then) western U.S. His map isn't quite as funny as this one, though: at least two of these hypothetical Australian states are essentially uninhabited to this day.

[numbat]

It could be argued that the US didn't escape unscathed from Square Disease. I find those states in the middle of the country rather difficult to tell apart.

[shikzoid]

Entry 105, dated April 17th (A Tory Atlas of the World) is my favorite, but I'm also pretty blown away by the tattoo featured in entry 126, posted on June third.

What a wonderful site!