C.D. Coulthard-Clark. Australia's military map-makers: The Royal Australian Survey Corps 1915-1996.

C.D. Coulthard-Clark. Australia's military map-makers: The Royal Australian Survey Corps 1915-1996, Oxford University Press, 2000, 247 pp.

Maps are vital tools to the soldier and a military truism is that there is no such thing as looking at a map too many times. The reverse of this particular coin, however, is that while good maps will greatly assist a military campaign or operation, bad maps will at best hinder operations, at worst lead to their failure. Australia is fortunate in that its soldiers are provided with the best military maps in the world. The accolade for this goes to the now defunct Royal Australian Survey Corps, whose story is told in Australia's military map-makers.

Australia's military map-makers is one of the Army History Unit's "Australian Army History Series." The book, as the title suggests, examines the history of the Royal Australian Survey Corps, from its humble beginnings in 1915 (with a genesis pre-dating that) to the disbandment of the Corps in 1996. At that time the Royal Australian Survey Corps was recognised as a world leader in the field of survey and mapping.

Military map-making has been a part of the Australian scene since the earliest colonial times. Naval and military surveyors were in the forefront of the effort to open up, explore and record the details of the mysterious new continent. With the withdrawal of the British forces from Australia in 1870 the onus of military preparation fell squarely on the shoulders of the various colonies. One area of responsibility was military mapping. However, it was not to be until the early 1900's, post-Federation, that the first faltering start was made on military mapping for the young nation. Chris Clark's book records the efforts, trials and tribulations of a small band of British Army surveyors seconded from the Royal Engineers to carry out the military mapping of Australia. Australia and the Australian Army owe much to these men.

The book goes on to describe the straggle by Australia's military surveyors to contribute to the war effort in the Great War, a straggle carded out in the face of opposition to their employment. The book then describes the trials of the Survey Corps not only to operate but simply to continue to exist in the lead years between the World Wars. A large part of the book covers the immense contribution of the Survey Corps to Australia's military effort in the Second World War. It is not untrue to say that without the efforts of the Royal Australian Survey Corps, then perhaps the Allied effort in the South Pacific Theatre might not have been as successful. The latter part of the book covers the myriad activities of the Survey Corps following the end of the war. These efforts saw the Corps engaged in such diverse tasks as supporting long range weapon tests in Central Australia, mapping the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and co-operating with the Indonesian Army in the mapping of Irian Jaya and Sumatra. The book also covers the work of the Survey Corps in Vietnam, supporting the Australian Task Force's operations. In its progressive coverage the book describes the evolving organisation and establishment of the Corps, as well as the ongoing introduction of new techniques, procedures and equipment. The book ends, sadly, with the disbandment of the Royal Australian Survey Corps in 1996 and the transfer of its personnel, equipment, tasks and role back to where it all started, the Engineers.

Unavoidably dry in places due to the nature of the narrative, Chris Clark still manages to make the book interesting by not neglecting the human side of the story. The book contains many human tales of the Corps, such as the story of the Warrant Officer who suicided in his office at Victoria Barracks in 1913, apparently due to criticism of the standard of his surveying work.

A weakness of the book, at least from the point of view of this reviewer, is the lack of explanation of the various technical processes involved in military surveying and mapping. When told, for instance, that cadastral surveys were inadequate for military purposes, the reviewer searched diligently but in vain for an explanation of what a cadastral survey is and why it is inadequate for military purposes. The only explanation is a short line in the Glossary at the rear of the book, which says: "cadastral surveys surveys made to obtain accurate and detailed definition of land boundaries." With the best will in the world, your reviewer found this very unhelpful. Similarly, the book abounds with glib references to an arcane process known as "plane tabling." Again, no explanation is given in the text of just exactly what "plane tabling" is, how it is carried out and what it results in. At least this time the Glossary entry is a bit more forthcoming, but still, a more detailed, although admittedly "dumbed down", explanation in the text would have been helpful.

Australia's Military Map-Makers is not a book that would appeal to just anybody. The relative dryness of the subject makes for some heavy going in the book. The lack of technical explanations of techniques, methods and equipment certainly detracts. On the other hand, Chris Clark's narrative goes a long way to making a dry (but not uninteresting) topic more readable and the book fills a previously empty niche by providing a history of the Royal Australian Survey Corps.

Graham Wilson