1805 map of Australia

1805 map of Australia

2592 x 1925

‘The Ulimaroa name has some interesting background- that’s a real TIL! - thank you!

Same! Very cool. And in the age of Spanish, Portugese, Dutch and British ruling the waves, a Swedish cartographer is out of left field

That Australia was very nearly claimed by the French, and the populate or perish mentality is well known - this was a snippet that I really didn’t know, especially: did the Maoris know of Australia? Really cool’

Passenger Railways of Australia

Passenger Railways of Australia

4667 x 6000

‘It’s weird seeing what I had previously compartmentalised as separate train networks actually forming a connected whole

I travel frequently on the XPT trains between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, so I’ve developed a map in my head of the networks of those regions.

Melbourne: you arrive at Southern Cross station, there are charging stations, $10 shower facilities, and other trains that’ll take you around Melbourne and Victoria.

Sydney: this station used to be a maze for me, there are bathrooms, but I don’t think I noticed any showers or charging stations.

Brisbane: the XPT always arrives and departs at the worst times imaginable, so you have to wait at Central station and not Roma St station most of the time. The station is also under construction so yeah literally nothing for you here.

Also no need for bus cards in Melbourne or Sydney, but in Brisbane you need it for the Airport - Central - Beenleigh - Varsity Lakes route still I think. Not sure when bus cards will stop being a thing but yeah’

1720 map showing California as an island

1720 map showing California as an island - by Nicolas de Fer

8015 x 5555

‘Would be interesting to know the route they travelled through California. I guess they crossed the gulf thinking Cali was an Island, and continued north not realising they were on the same landmass they departed from. Looks like they got all the way up to Monterey Bay but still thought they were on an island!

Iirc they sailed across for a long time. The Spanish were also sailing up down the coast. At one point they were sailing between Monterey and Drakes Bay up around Point Reyes which is around the area labeled Mendocino. This route took them by the San Francisco Bay but they didn’t know it was there for like 200 years. They sailed past it and never noticed the inlet because it was always foggy. Another interesting thing is that the area labeled something like “Sebas” is probably the Russian River Basin. This happens to be the most northern extension of the Spanish Empire and the Most Southern extension of the Russian Empire

Thank you for the reply! Had no idea the Russians went as far as California, and I also didn’t notice the “S. Fran” on the map until you mentioned it. Very interesting, I’ll have to look up more about it. Hard to believe that only 300 years ago this was all uncharted territory, for Europeans anyway’

Linguistic structure of Montenegro by settlements (2011)

Linguistic structure of Montenegro by settlements (2011)

1911 x 2388

‘This is a linguistic map of Montenegro according to the 2011 population census. Data is according to settlements

Do the “Serbian” and “Montenegrin” responses reflect any linguistic difference, or just a dispute over what the language should be called?

No. Montenegrin is purely Serbian with a regional accent

You mean Serbo-Croatian. Serbian is yet another dialect’

Rand McNally map of Canada (1889)

Rand McNally map of Canada (1889)

8330 x 5221

‘I didn’t realize Saskatchewan used to be like that

Those were the districts of the North West Territories at the time. The districts of Assiniboine, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Athabasca would be combined to make the two provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1905.

Originally, Frederick Haultain, Premier of the NWT during that time, was pushing for a province of Buffalo, which would include all of the two provinces lands. Prime minister Laurier, fearing a provincial rival to the existing duopolistic control of Ontario and Quebec, split it at the 110th meridian’