Who of us can remember using a street directory to navigate around town? As you travelled to your destination you would have to open to the street directory, turning it left, right, or even upside down as you drove around to get a perspective on which way you were travelling. If you were clever and had super orientation skills, then you didn’t need to move the page at all. We’d be calling out to the driver for upcoming turns. Next right at the lights! I was always frustrated when the road you were following came to the edge of the page and suddenly you had to flip 50 pages to make the connection on the next map. It did my head in! Sometimes you had to flip back and forth between pages as you drove around. Add to the fact that some of us (namely me) get car sick when we read while in motion, it might not have been the most pleasant experience. I think that’s why I would always nab the keys and jump in the driver’s seat before anyone else got near the car. Although, sick or not, I loved finding my way via a map.

I can remember, as a bookseller, street directories were a booming trade on an annual basis. Everyone wanted the latest one as soon as it was released, so that they had all the updated street maps with all new suburbs, bridges, traffic lights, major or minor roads and so forth. It was also the easiest Father’s Day present to give ever.

These days we have Google Maps on our phones or a fitted screen in the car with GPS. Now a disembodied voice tells us where to go instead. Although we have probably all experienced a GPS trying to send us onto a random dirt road or suggest that we turn the car into a paddock basher where there was no road to be seen. A range of obligatory expletives usually follows from the driver. Sometimes you decide to take a different way suddenly and the GPS has a minor fit of confusion trying to recalibrate. That always seems to give me a strange sense of satisfaction. Sometimes
I go a different way just to get that feeling.

I know this technology makes it easier for us to get to our destinations but, in many ways, I miss those days of navigating myself with a map (sans the motion sickness of course). It was always a fun challenge to figure it all out and the skills required really exercised my grey matter. It felt good to navigate myself. It left me with a sense of accomplishment.

I have always loved maps. Especially atlases. Those pages which show the undulation of the land, the size of cities and how they all connect with pathways that crisscross everywhere.
I imagine who lives there, what it might look like, how cities all fit together on a bigger map interconnecting to make a country. When planning to travel it’s so exciting to see where you are going, placing pinpoints on the pages, planning how you will get from A to B to C and on to F and back again.

When you get to a town it’s great to buy a map and mark all the streets and places you visit. They are wonderful souvenirs. Every time you pick it up you instantly remember those well-trodden paths and what you saw.

Of course, very old maps are things of beauty. As a child I loved looking at them and still do. Especially the ones in books, with little illustrations: a compass, a picture of a whale spurting water from its blowhole or illustrations of wind and clouds with faces. Sometimes the coasts along the land petered out as no-one knew what was there. Very mysterious. How ancient mariners managed to make maps that were near correct is beyond my understanding but what a fascinating thing to do.

It’s thought that the oldest map is the Imago Mundi Babylonian map, from 6th century BCE Babylonia. It’s held in the British Museum like many artifacts. It was discovered in Sippar in Iraq. Although maps were carved into stone tablets as early as 2300 BCE.

Of course, since the inception of the map they have continued to change over the centuries as new pathways joined old ones, little towns sprung up, countries are invaded, liberated or broken up. I remember watching a video of how borders have changed in Europe over 2000 years. As each 100 years passed, borders would shift, sometimes dramatically, new countries would appear, only to then disappear to be replaced or absorbed. It’s quite incredible to see just how many times things have shifted and morphed. Sadly, we humans are still bent on invading or making land grabs.

But it’s not only shifting borders of countries, but of suburbs as new streets are added or changed to being only one way, or even closed off to traffic. Maps of electoral boundaries shift regularly. Maps of school catchments change too. There are maps showing shipping lanes, bush walks, or maps showing the inside of buildings with pathways to escape from fire. I noticed on the news the other night northern Queensland wants its own state! That would take a redraw for sure. Let’s not discuss Western Australia seceding from the rest of Australia. Weather maps change from moment to moment. There are so many types of maps and they continually need updating. It’s full-time employment for the map industry!

As we are mostly using maps online, of course it means we are saving great swathes of trees and that is a very good thing. I’m all for anything that improves the lives for wildlife and the environment. In fact, a necessity. But still, I miss activating my grey matter and even getting lost occasionally.

Rowena