Mapping a new frontier

Imagine it’s May 1829. The British vessel Parmelia is grounded connected a sandbank adjacent Garden Island, disconnected nan seashore of what will soon go nan Swan River Colony.

Aboard, Lieutenant Governor James Stirling sits pinch a young lieutenant, John Septimus Roe, successful a cramped cabin. Together, Stirling writes and hands Roe a letter, officially appointing him nan colony’s first Surveyor-General.

Roe’s occupation is to representation a onshore that is immense and brimming pinch potential. 

Supplied: WA State Archive

STEM connected nan frontier

In 2025, onshore surveying is comparatively easy. In 1829, it was exhausting, vulnerable and highly method work. Surveyors for illustration Roe relied connected devices specified arsenic nan theodolite to measurement angles, chains to measurement distances and nan stars for celestial navigation.

WA is huge, pinch sandy ground, dense bushland and a harsh climate. With non-existent GPS, this was nary locomotion successful nan park.

Roe and his squad had to transportation their instrumentality done swamps, climb rocky outcrops and strengthen blistering heat, each while sketching retired nan first maps of WA. It was subject successful nan chaotic – unpolished but essential.

Surveying nan uncharted onshore of WA required a blend of method precision and sheer beingness endurance. Roe relied connected a suite of instruments that were elemental by today’s standards yet innovative for nan 1820s.

The theodolite, a instrumentality for measuring horizontal and vertical angles, was cardinal to his work, allowing him to triangulate positions pinch singular accuracy.

To measurement distances, his squad utilized surveying chains – each 66 feet agelong – meticulously stretched crossed rugged terrain.

Navigation often relied connected celestial observations, pinch Roe utilizing a sextant and nan stars to cipher latitude and longitude. Every measurement was recorded successful elaborate section books, which were later utilized to draught maps by hand.

The process was painstakingly slow and required bonzer skill. Errors successful measurement aliases misjudgements successful navigation could origin important inaccuracies connected nan last maps.

Despite nan primitive devices and harsh conditions, Roe’s activity laid down a blueprint for WA’s early settlements and infrastructure, showcasing nan captious domiciled of STEM successful nan astir challenging frontiers. 

Supplied: WA State Archive

Roe wasn’t conscionable nan feline pinch nan representation – he was nan designer of early WA. His surveys laid nan groundwork, literally, for towns for illustration Perth and Fremantle. He marked retired roads and spot boundaries.

He documented nan earthy situation successful intricate detail, noting ungraded types, vegetation and h2o sources. His records weren’t conscionable for settlers looking to workplace – they were for anyone trying to understand this awe-inspiring land.

A bequest pinch 2 sides

While Roe’s activity was groundbreaking, it didn’t hap successful an quiet land. For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal group had called this spot home, surviving successful heavy harmony pinch its ecosystems.

Their taste and belief relationship to nan onshore was thing European settlers, including Roe, mostly overlooked.

When Roe mapped nan Swan River Colony, he didn’t floor plan quiet wilderness, he carved up occupied onshore that had been cared for and nurtured by Aboriginal communities for countless generations.

Fences were built, h2o sources were diverted and ineffable sites were destroyed. Colonisation wasn’t conscionable a beingness enactment – it disrupted full ways of life.

It’s a sobering reminder that history isn’t achromatic and white. Roe’s achievements were significant, but they came astatine a costs that continues to impact Aboriginal communities to this day. 

Supplied: WA State Archive

Balancing advancement and reflection

How do we position personification for illustration John Septimus Roe successful 2025?

On 1 hand, his activity laid nan instauration for WA’s development. Without him, towns, roads and farms whitethorn person taken decades longer to beryllium established.

On nan other, his maps symbolise a clip erstwhile advancement came astatine nan disbursal of group who had lived present for millennia, whose lives and families were everlastingly altered successful nan sanction of assemblage description .

The reply is balance. We tin observe Roe’s ingenuity and grit without ignoring nan effect of European colony connected Aboriginal communities.

Progress is complicated. It’s messy. Understanding it requires america to look astatine nan bigger picture: nan triumphs and nan tragedies.

The adjacent clip you rotation done Perth’s streets aliases thrust crossed nan sprawling WA landscape, deliberation of Roe. Ponder nan stars he utilized to guideline his way, nan chains he dragged done nan bush and nan maps he sketched connected insubstantial that would style a city.

We must besides see nan Aboriginal people, whose relationship to nan onshore runs acold deeper than immoderate surveyor’s chain. Think of nan Aboriginal group whose onshore was carved up. Think of nan Aboriginal group whose homeland was changed irrevocably.

Roe’s communicative isn’t conscionable astir maps and land. It’s astir nan gathering of 2 worlds – 1 of invention and 1 of contented – and nan lessons we are still learning from both.