Events

9 speakers and a world of maps

Please join us for a public symposium exploring three of the most important early map collections in Australia with a particular focus on Dutch Golden Age maps showcasing recent innovations in their care and conservation.

This symposium will feature engaging presentations from historians and researchers formative in the development of the map collections of the National Library of Australia, the Kerry Stokes Collection, and MONA as they discuss the history, significance, and motivation for these collections in the context of Australian mapping.

Conservators from the University of Melbourne will describe their recent award-winning journey to conserve two different copies of the rare and beautiful 17th-Century wall map, Archipelagus Orientalis, sive Asiaticus (Eastern and Asian archipelago), from the workshop of Master Cartographer for the Dutch East India Company Joan Blaeu, and share the insights they gained into the materials and construction of these rare, beautiful, and complex maps.

Archipelagus Orientalis, sive Asiaticus is the first published map depicting in detail the journeys of Abel Tasman including the sighting of Tasmania by the crew of the Zeehan on 24 November 1642, and Tasman’s mapping of New Zealand; it is the first large-scale published map of New Holland and the map on which all subsequent maps of Australia were based until the additions of Cook over a century later. The National Library of Australia map has recently been added to the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.

Only five complete copies are known to exist, and of these the only two wall maps are held in Australian collections and were conserved by the University of Melbourne.

Inclusions: Registration ticket includes entry to the symposium, Symposium Program and event lanyard.

Lunch break: There will be a 50 minute break for lunch from 12 noon. Please make your own arrangements. Refer to the Symposium Program for the event schedule featuring session times.

Accessibility: The Forum Theatre is wheelchair accessible. Enter via Professor’s Walk, and take North Wing lifts to Level 1.

Further information: gcs-info@unimelb.edu.au or call Grimwade Conservation Services contact Libby Melzer on (03) 9348 5700.

Speakers include:

Dr Martin Woods, Former Director, Curatorial and Collections Research, National Library of Australia, Canberra

Erica Persak, Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth

Jane Clark, Museum of New and Old Art (MONA), Hobart

Libby Melzer, University of Melbourne

Peter Mitchelson, University of Melbourne

Victoria Thomas, ArtLab Australia

Briony Pemberton, Pemberton Conservation

Marion Parker, Marion Parker Textiles Conservation

Christine Mizzi, State Library of Victoria

Join us for a thought-provoking panel discussion and Q & A with key building industry stakeholders. The Forum will be addressed by the Victorian Minister for Planning, The Hon. Sonya Kilkenny MP.

State and Federal Governments are now grappling with both housing and infrastructure issues. All stakeholders in the Victorian Building Industry are critical to providing jobs, building for future sustainability, and ensuring consumer protection. The Victorian Government has undertaken a program to reform the building system. These reforms raise important questions about consumer protection, building industry governance, and the role of developers, contractors, architects, and consultants. However, the building system is complex with many different moving parts and stakeholder interests.

This event will explore this context and highlight the issues in this complex landscape and how these might be addressed going forward.

Proudly supported by the Association of Consulting Architects.