Map Plan Giclee "The District of Adelaide, South Australia, As Divided into Country sections from the Trigonometrical surveys of Col. Light, the late Surveyor General." John Arrowsmith London 1840

Archival Limited Edition Giclee after original hand colored copper engraving after Colonel William Light (1786-1839) published by John Arrowsmith 35 Essex Street 1839. London, February 18th 1839

Size of image 54cm x 64cm (21 1/2 x 25 1/2 inches)

Archival Limited Edition Giclee /200. Issued with Numbered certificate /200.

This type of map is known as a cadrastral map. It is a register of property titles & is usually managed by government agencies – in Australia these are often called Land Titles Offices. The information recorded includes an accurate description of the location of a parcel of land and who owns it. Interestingly there is record of blocks owned by women who had invested in the colony, evidence of the progressive model on which the new Colony was established: for example Lot 276 is Miss M.A.Watson, Lot 313 Miss J. Botting, Lot 406 Mrs.Fooks. 

The map records the area immediately surrounding the square mile of Adelaide, from Port Adelaide in the north down to present day Brighton in the south.e see the roads ("Road to Glenelg" now Anzac Hwy) , canals (eventually not built as trams and trains technology had trumped that requirement), schools, store, barracks, cemetery and hospital. It also shows surveyed sections numbered and available for sale in two sizes, small lots of 80 acres and large lots of 134 acres. Those sold are colored and carry the landholders' names. The numbering system of surveyed lots is by two parallel sequences of numbers not immediately apparent unless the accompanying list of purchasers is available.

South Australia begins...

The colonial free settlement of South Australia was proclaimed by Governor John Hindmarsh on 28 December 1836. Surveyor Col William Light surveyed the settlement of Adelaide in 1837 then proceeded with the District of Adelaide in 1838. The procurers of land since 1837 are named on the purchased blocks. Many ventured out to the Colony lending their names & places of origin to "villages" and suburbs of this unique 'Systematically Colonized' British prototype,  settlement created by the South Australia Act in London of 1834.

Indeed, here we see the initial plan for the sale of land in action: those that purchased a lot in the Key of Adelaide city were given a country, or district, block as an added inducement to purchase. An example of this: the Anglican Church purchased Lot 9 from the Plan of Adelaide (see Light's Plan of Adelaide) Consequently, lot 287 in the Eastern District, or Country blocks, is labelled "Trustees of the Church". On lot 9 was built the iconic Trinity Anglican Church and correspondingly that area of country land, seen in Robert Frearson's Eastern District of Adelaide map as" Lot 287 Trustees of the Church" is now known as Trinity Gardens.