'Robert Dixon's 1842 'Map of Moreton Bay' represents a portion of land, which is very similar to that represented by the Bureau of Meteorology's 128 km Brisbane (Mt Stapylton) Radar Loop.1 Dixon's is a chart of landforms, acknowledging very few human settlements. Most of the place names he used can be associated with one specific generation. As such, this map provides a unique snapshot from a time of global and local upheaval. Globally, the preindustrial era was coming to an end, with the advent of coal-fired locomotion. The British Parliament had passed its Slavery Abolition Act 1833. Two British armies had recently invaded Kabul. Locally, the last of the commandants was about to leave the lands represented by Dixon's 1842 map. The administration of the commandants would be replaced by the administrators of a terrestrial fund. This paper aims to provide an orientation to some of the sources and relationships that inform the interpretation of this 1842 map.'(Publication abstract)
'In March 1839 the Governor of New South Wales, Sir George Gipps, sent surveyor Robert Dixon and assistant surveyors James Warner and Granville William Chetwynd Stapylton to Moreton Bay to conduct trigonometrical surveys of the district in preparation for land sales. This innocuous project was the precursor to a chain of events that became a grim tale of murder and the first executions of Aboriginal people in Queensland.' (Publication abstract)
