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Ayers Rock
Title : Ayers Rock Ayers Rock
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Creator : Berry, Edwin S.
Source : Gosse, William Christie, D6994(L)
Date of creation : 1873
Format : Artwork
Catalogue record
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Copyright : Reproduction rights are owned by State Library of South Australia. This image may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires permission from the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form.
Description :

Edwin Berry's drawing is of one end of Uluru (Ayers Rock), rather than the whole Rock and is the first by a white man of the most iconic natural feature of the Australian landscape. Matching Gosse's description of it as having a most peculiar appearance Berry gave it a most unusual shape, with the caves in the upper face well defined. Berry was second-in-command on the expedition and also produced the map for the expedition as well as a number of others including for JW Lewis's 1874 expedition to Lake Eyre and a town plan map for Palmerston (NT) in 1870. He was later Chief Draftsman in the Land Titles Office in Adelaide.

William Christie Gosse led the South Australian Government funded expedition west from Alice Springs in 1873. Its purpose was to explore a possible route to Western Australia. With five men, three Afghan cameleers and an Aboriginal boy the expedition explored west until repelled by sand hills and spinifex. Gosse discovered and named Ayers Rock on 19 July 1873 and in addition the Musgrave Ranges and Mount Woodroffe, the highest point in South Australia (1435 metres), and mapped some 60,000 miles of new country.
Subjects
Related names :

Berry, Edwin S.

Gosse, William Christie, 1842-1881

Coverage year : 1873
Place : Uluru/Ayers Rock (NT)
Region : Northern Territory
Further reading :
Gosse, William Christie, Report and diary of Mr. W. C. Gosse's central and western exploring expedition 1873 Adelaide: Libraries Board of South Australia, 1973
Layton, Robert, Uluru: an Aboriginal history of Ayers Rock Canberra: Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, 1986
Sweet, I. P. Uluru & Kata Tjuta: a geological history Canberra: Australian Geological Survey Organisation, 1992
Breeden, Stanley, Uluru : looking after Uluru-Kata Tjuta the Anangu way East Roseville, N.S.W.: Simon & Schuster Australia, 1994
Internet links :
Exhibitions and events :

State Library of South Australia: Mortlock Wing. Taking it to the edge August 2004-


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