Preserving Our History

SA on the Map: 1836 - 2006

Goyder's signature and stamp. SRSA GRG 35/585/66

In 2006 Australia celebrated the 400th anniversary of the first documented evidence of navigators mapping our coastline. Some two hundred years later, explorers like Eyre and Sturt ventured across dry land and began to chart what we now call South Australia.

State Records marked the occasion by paying tribute to the man who did most in the 19th century to map inland South Australia. He was not a navigator or explorer but a public servant. His name was George Woodroffe Goyder.

As Surveyor-General for over 30 years, Goyder determined the emerging human geography of South Australia. He decided where towns were to be located, which routes the roads and railways would take, which areas would be opened up for new ventures and which areas would be left.