Eucalyptus, Sheep & Desert

Most of Australia is desert. The bits that aren't desert are populated by sheep and eucalyptus forests.

I discovered these interesting facts from some old Australian maps featured on ABC's But where is the green sheep? Old maps put the art in cartography. The ABC article features some great examples of vintage maps from the National Library of Australia's collection. The static maps include a number of cartographic illustrations of Australia's vegetation, livestock and climatic conditions.

Towards the bottom of the ABC article are a number of interactive versions of vintage maps from the NLA collection. These interactive maps include a 1940 map of Aboriginal tribes and a map showing the routes taken by some of the earliest European explorations of the Australia.