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| Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia | |
|---|---|
| Title | Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia |
| Discipline | Geography |
| Language | English |
| Country | Australia |
| Publisher | Royal Geographical Society of Australasia |
| History | 1885–20th century |
Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia was the principal serial publication of the Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, issuing reports, maps, expedition accounts and scholarly papers that influenced exploration and colonial science across Australasia. The journal collected material from expeditions, surveyors, and institutional correspondents including reports tied to James Cook, Matthew Flinders, Ludwig Leichhardt, John McDouall Stuart, and later colonial administrators and scientists associated with City of Melbourne institutions. As an archival node, the Proceedings connected networks that included the Royal Society of London, Geographical Society of London, British Museum, National Library of Australia, and provincial learned societies in Sydney, Hobart, and Adelaide.
The Society that produced the Proceedings was part of a wider 19th-century constellation of institutions such as the Royal Geographical Society, Royal Society of New South Wales, University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, Victorian Institute of Engineers, and colonial survey offices. Early volumes documented the work of explorers like Hamilton Hume, William Hovell, Edward John Eyre, Thomas Mitchell, George Goyder, and administrators tied to the Colonial Office and the British Admiralty. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries the Proceedings published material connected to expeditions funded or supported by philanthropists and patrons including figures associated with Sir Thomas Elder and Sir Samuel McCaughey, linking to collectors and curators at the South Australian Museum, Australian Museum, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, and state survey departments. The journal’s timeline intersects with events such as the Federation of Australia and scientific institutions like the Australian National University.
Editions of the Proceedings were issued by regional branches—Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, Victorian Branch, Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, New South Wales Branch, and Royal Geographical Society of Australasia, South Australian Branch—and reflected publishing practices in the same milieu as the Transactions of the Royal Society of New South Wales and the Proceedings of the Royal Society (London). Formats included quarto volumes, bound annuals, and offprints used by surveyors and museum curators in Canberra, Perth, Brisbane, and Launceston. Printing and distribution involved firms and agents connected to the Melbourne Observatory, Government Printer (Victoria), and colonial presses used by the Parliament of Victoria. Indexes and plate lists paralleled those found in contemporaneous serials such as the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.
Content ranged across cartography, field reports, climatology observations, ethnographic notes, natural history specimen lists, and hydrographic surveys tied to figures and institutions including Charles Sturt, John Forrest, Phillip Parker King, Alfred William Howitt, Joseph Banks, Robert Brown, and collectors sending material to the Kew Gardens and the Natural History Museum, London. The Proceedings carried articles on river systems like the Murray River, coastal surveys of the Gulf of Carpentaria, Torres Strait, and the Great Barrier Reef, and geological and palaeontological reports referencing sites such as Lake Eyre and Nullarbor Plain. Ethnographic and anthropological contributions engaged with voices and collections associated with communities in Torres Strait Islands, Arnhem Land, Mabo v Queensland (No 2), and material culture compared in cabinets at the British Museum and the National Museum of Australia.
Contributors included colonial surveyors, naval officers, academic geographers, and naturalists like John Oxley, George Bass, Francis Barrallier, Sir Douglas Mawson, Edgeworth David, Sir Hubert Wilkins, and institutional correspondents from the Adelaide Geographical Society. Notable papers treated routes of inland explorers such as reports on the crossings of Simpson Desert and analyses of glaciation in Mount Kosciuszko. Botanical and zoological lists referenced collectors working with Herbarium Australiense, specimens exchanged with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and researchers at the British Museum (Natural History). Cartographic plate contributions connected to the work of the Surveyor-General of New South Wales and mapping projects coordinated with the Hydrographic Office (United Kingdom).
The Proceedings informed colonial policy debates and infrastructure projects that intersected with the interests of the Victorian Railways, inland telegraph schemes linked to Overland Telegraph Line, pastoral expansion associated with Merino sheep breeders and pastoralists like Charles Sturt’s successors, and conservation discussions later engaged by bodies such as the Australian Conservation Foundation. The journal was cited in works by metropolitan geographers at the Royal Geographical Society (London) and referenced by Antarctic and polar programs led by Douglas Mawson and Sir Ernest Shackleton expeditions. Scholarly reception crossed disciplines and collections, influencing curators at the South Australian Museum and bibliographers compiling serials for the National Library of Australia.
Surviving runs of the Proceedings are held by national and state libraries and archives including the National Library of Australia, State Library of Victoria, State Library of New South Wales, State Library of South Australia, Mitchell Library, and university special collections at the University of Sydney, University of Melbourne, and Monash University. Microforms and digitised copies appear in catalogues alongside related holdings from the Royal Geographical Society (London), manuscript collections tied to explorers such as Ludwig Leichhardt and John McDouall Stuart, and map collections at the National Archives of Australia. Secondary bibliographic treatments appear in bibliographies compiled by the Australian Academy of Science and catalogues of the British Library.
Category:Geography journals Category:Australian publications