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The Library collected many printed maps during the War which illustrated the general areas where Australian servicemen were serving. These maps were published as newspaper supplements or were published by the Australian government and Australian commercial publishers such as HEC Robinson.

The Australian Woman's Weekly war map,
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The production of maps for military use was a major activity throughout the war. These maps were essential for the planning, execution and monitoring of activities across the battle fronts of Europe.

A significant number of military maps are trench maps. These illustrate the locations of trenches across the battles fields. A trench map consisted of a base map that showed roads, towns, rivers, forests and so on, over-printed with trenches; red for German, blue for British. Although some trench maps were printed with all the trenches of the same colour. Trench maps were updated on a daily basis using aerial photographs and intelligence reports.

Humoristische karte von Europa im Jahre 1914 ,
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In addition to these military maps, commercial publishers produced hundreds of maps to provide the general public with up to date information on the progress of the war . These maps also played an important role as families and friends followed the movement of their soldiers as they travelled and fought on the other side of the world.

Search our catalogue to find maps from the war period using the keyword 'cartographic' and ‘World War 1914-1918’ or using a battle field location eg. ‘Ypres cartographic’.

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War map 1915 [cartographic material] [Album view]

War map 1915
1915
Digital ID: 
IE3545577
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Brooks's war map [cartographic material] : map of the seat of war [Album view]

Brooks's war map map of the seat of war
Digital ID: 
IE3693831
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Robur Tea war map [cartographic material] [Album view]

Robur tea war map, Turkish Empire : Robur war map, Gallipoli and the Dardanelles : bird's eye view
Digital ID: 
IE3707837
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McCathie's war map [cartographic material] [Album view]

McCathie's war map
Digital ID: 
IE3548189
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[ANZAC map of Gallipoli [cartographic material] : showing terrain and ternches from Chailak Dere to GabaTepe] [Album view]

[ANZAC map of Gallipoli showing terrain and ternches from Chailak Dere to Gaba Tepe]
Digital ID: 
IE3708360
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Graphic map of the Dardanelles [cartographic material] [Album view]

Graphic map of the Dardanelles
Digital ID: 
IE3547065
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Distribution of enemy forces opposite 1st ANZAC Corp's front [cartographic material] [Album view]

Distribution of enemy forces opposite 1st ANZAC Corp's front from information received to 1/9/17
Digital ID: 
IE3693884
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Heavy artillery bombardment map

Heavy artillery bombardment map
Digital ID: 
IE3545097
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Hostile batteries smoke screens & place names

Hostile batteries smoke screens & place names
Digital ID: 
IE3708593
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Elise Edmonds, Senior Curator, Research and Discovery