First published in 1865. Available coloured and uncoloured, in loose sheets, "Book Form", and also available on rollers and varnished, for the office.

A very detailed map, centred on Sydney's central business district and extending as far as ten miles in three directions: as far north as Curl Curl Head, as far south as northern Botany Bay, and as far west as Ashfield. Willis, who has compiled the map from his own surveys, and others at the New South Wales Surveyor General's Office, names all streets, important buildings: Government House, Customs House, Exchange, St. Andrew's Cathedral, St. Mary's Cathedral, Fort Phillip, the Land & Surveyor General's Office, Prince of Wales Theatre, Royal Hotel, N.S.W. Bank, General Post Office, The Markets and the Australian Museum; neighbourhoods and land reserves.

The mapmaker
James A.C. Willis (fl 1848-1896), painter, draftsman and surveyor, arrived in Sydney, from Devon, in the late 1840s. By 1848, he was apprenticed to Conrad Martens, then and now, one of the colony's talented artists. In 1853, he had become a surveyor and draftsman for the Surveyor General's Office of New South Wales. This is his earliest published map: others being: 'The County of Bathurst', 1869; 'The Harbour of Port Jackson, New South Wales', c1870; a 'Map of New South Wales', 1871; and the 'Cereal Map of New South Wales', 1871. He is probably best known for his panoramic view 'The Harbour of Port Jackson & city of Sydney drawn from nature…', 1870. He was a founding member of the NSW Academy of Art, and in 1871 was elected one of its directors.