A fine example of the first state of Arrowsmith's celebrated large scale map of Australia, and separately issued, although published at the same time as his two-sheet map of Australia for the 'London Atlas'. It was the largest available map of Australia at the time. The map reflects the discoveries of Major Mitchell, Darling, Sturt, Oxley, Evans.

Over the course of 24 years the various updated versions of Arrowsmith's map record the exploration and development of Australia, fifty years after British settlement in 1788, from 1838 until 1862. During the next twenty five years the eastern part of the continent had developed to the stage of having five independent colonies of New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, while in the west the great deserts continued to present formidable barriers to both exploration and development. Only the south western corner of the continent developed to any extent as water supply remained the determining factor in the expansion of agriculture and settlement" (Prescott).

The mapmaker
The founder of the Arrowsmith dynasty of cartographers was Aaron Arrowsmith (1750–1823). On his death, he was succeeded by his sons Aaron (1802–1854) and Samuel (1805–1839) who worked as partners from 1823 to 1832, when Aaron resigned, ultimately to join the church. On Samuel's death in 1839, the business was acquired by John Arrowsmith, his cousin. John had trained with Aaron sr., joining him in 1810, but leaving on his death to set up his own firm. In skill, John was in no way inferior to the elder Aaron. He too was a notable publisher of important wall-maps, focused largely on British possessions abroad, including important wall-maps of Canada, Trinidad, British Guyana, Africa and of the rapidly expanding settlements in Australia and New Zealand. However, these are only rarely encountered and little known. Instead, he is best known for his maps published in books; he had an enormous output, supplying some 800 maps for Hansard, and other government publications, making and engraving maps for travel books and also, acting as semi-official mapmaker for the Royal Geographical Society, he contributed large numbers of maps for the Society's Journals, illustrating the most recent discoveries contributed by Fellows of the Society.