Photo Mosaics

These aerial photo mosaics provide a snapshot of what Victoria was like in the late 1940s to mid 1950s - a visual benchmark of our State which is now available for free.

Landholders, Indigenous communities, agriculturalists, CMA's, LandCare groups, Land managers and planners, Local Councils, conservation groups, researchers across many fields, Friends of Groups, Field naturalists. Anyone with a particular interest in a place in Victoria can see what it was like over six decades ago! Such visual historic benchmarks are also important as Victorians evaluate how to adapt their landscapes to the impacts of climate change projected for this century.

In between WW I & II aerial photography was a new and important technology to assist more accurate land mapping and management. A comprehensive series of aerial photography of Victoria, begun by the RAAF in the late 1930s and completed by others, was initiated to compile the first comprehensive set of imperial scale maps, the main focus being 1:63,360 (inch to a mile) mapping for Victoria.

The then Department of Crown Lands and Survey took many years to carefully cut and mosaic these photos into a systematic photo base series for Victoria, each covering an area of approximately 480 square miles or 1230 km² using a latitude and longitude grid. Apart from assisting other processes (e.g. accurate imperial scale topographical maps) maps in the photo-mosaic series were used extensively by the Soil Conservation Authority, State Rivers and Water Supply and other land management agencies, now incorporated under DSE.

Start a Selection >>> Further information Map coverage
 

• All mosaics are supplied as JPEG images, and range in size from 1 mb to 5 mb.
• The image does not cover the whole of the sheet - there is a title and other information in the margin.
• The actual image area on adjoining mosaics may not fit together accurately.
• Some photo mosaics, especially along the coast and the Murray River, do not cover the whole of the map sheet.
• Many photo mosaics have features such as roads and rivers labelled - see the Coastal area sample.
• Some photo mosaics may have hand-written annotations, from the original photographs - see the Agricultural area sample.