The Archipelagus Orientalis, sive Asiaticus Johannes Blaeu (referred to hereafter as the Blaeu Map) is a treasure of the National Library of Australia. The Blaeu Map was created over a century before the Endeavour voyage of Captain James Cook. The map documents the findings of two voyages of discovery in the South-East Asia and Australasian regions by Abel Tasman in 1642-43 and 1644, sponsored by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and also includes information from other Dutch voyages of exploration in the region from 1606 onwards. It is regarded as ‘the consummate cartographic expression of Dutch discoveries in Australian waters.’ The Blaeu Map was produced in 1663 and remained the authoritative source of cartographic information on the Australian coast until Captain James Cook’s successful mapping of the east coast.

The Blaeu Map is also a fine exemplar of high-quality cartography from the Dutch ‘Golden Age’. Overall, the map as a composition, its construction, cartography, decorative elements and text generates a sense of power and beauty from a composite of perfectly integrated copperplate engraving and letterpress. Underpinning this were the resources of the Netherlands’ greatest map maker and publishing house, Blaeu. Importantly for exploration, Joan Blaeu’s decision to centre the map on New Holland changed the viewing focus. Where previously Australia had been at the fringes of maps of the Asia-Pacific and the world, in this composition it became the area to which the viewer’s eye is naturally drawn.

The Blaeu Map has also acted to re-set perceptions of Australian history that centred the British contribution to exploration and settlement, and has engaged Dutch communities in Australia in bringing the story of the early discovery of Australia by Europeans, and in particular the role of the Dutch East India Company in this process, to the wider community.