Tuesday, June 9, 2009

A gift from an unknown draughtsman


In my work, I deal with early survey and subdivision plans a lot. I have a deep love of maps, and these types are no exception. Having downloaded a plan today from the Landonline site, I never noticed some of the finer detail until just now, when I had a breather, and could take a closer look.

The above detail comes from Deed S 26 (Crown copyright, Land Information NZ), the subdivision of J. C. Hill's estate in 1859, called Hillsboro and Queenstown (part of today's Hillsborough and Onehunga suburbs). "The Bluff" is today called White Bluff, between Granny's Bay and Hillsborough Bay, along the northern coast of the Manukau Harbour.

Some Lands and Survey draughtsman, perhaps thinking the plan needed that extra little bit of detail, added the sketch of a steamer with sails, puffing away from the bluff out across the harbour. Sorry, I couldn't find any reference as to who the artist was.

3 comments:

  1. What a lovely little extra find, Lisa!

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  2. I'm researching the stories around Granny's Bay for an architecture school project and it's fascinating to see such detail in these old records. If only our CAD maps contained these extra layers of information!

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  3. Thanks for your comment. I'd be very interested to learn more about your project, for the Puketapapa/Mt Roskill Historical Society, Bobby. Please get in touch when you can.

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