All 10,000+ items in our series of surveyors' field books [NRS-13889 Surveyors' field books, 1794-1954] are now listed in Collection Search. This means you can place a pre-order to view them in the Reading Room
What are Field Books?
Crown Plans have been produced since 1788 to define roads, leases, licences and grants affecting Crown Land or land in the process of being alienated from the Crown to ensure its orderly management and administration.
Field Books were created to facilitate the taking of notes by surveyors on site to gather sufficient information to allow for the drawing up of Crown Plans. Field books are diaries of surveying expeditions, descriptions of natural features, sketches of farms, town allotments and roads. Trigonometrical observations and triangulation surveys are also included. In some field books references to map and plan catalogue numbers have been added.
