The Collection

The collection includes maps depicting the Australasian region, which includes Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, lower South East Asia, and the western Pacific between the 1500s and 1800s. Maps of Australia include sea charts of the coast, maps showing the exploration of the interior and plans showing the layout of cities, towns, and counties.

Some of the maps also have a relationship with a region in other ways than purely depicting it, such as through a personality such as Cook, Bligh, or King. There is also a large collection of world maps

Early maps of Australasia are much rarer than those of most other regions due the late European settlement of the region.

About the Collector

Troy has long had a relationship with history. He grew up on Norfolk Island, which was discovered by Captain Cook in 1774 and is home to the descendants of the crew from the mutiny on the Bounty until today. The Island???s convict settlement (1788-1856) is the second oldest English settlement after Sydney in the Australasian region, so history was a part of every day life. Troy spent his child hood years amongst the ruins of the old settlement which is currently proposed as a World Heritage site because of its essential importance to the foundation of Australia. Troy???s father dived on many shipwrecks and was part of the original team to raise off the seabed the anchor of HMS Sirius (flagship to the first fleet that first settled Europeans in Australia), which sunk in 1790 on the Island???s reef.

Growing up around the island???s artefacts intrigued Troy???s early fascination in the beauty of history. Troy began collecting artefacts at 6 years old with broken convict period porcelain and ancient Polynesian stone tools found washed up on the settlements beaches.