McArthur's universal corrective map (1979)

This map was published by Stuart McArthur in 1979 as a protest against the imposition of representing maps with the northern hemisphere at the top.

Stuart McArthur painted the first version of his map with the southern hemisphere at the top when he was only 12 years old, in 1970. According to the story, his teacher corrected him and asked him to make the map the right way round. correct. Throughout the rest of his teenage years, he continued his personal struggle until, in 1979, whilst studying at the University of Melbourne, he managed to publish this map to mark Australia Day on 26 January.

The map is clearly designed to place Australia at its centre. Apart from the obvious fact that the south is at the top, the ocean shown as divided is the Atlantic rather than the Pacific (as is commonly the case on maps published in the Americas or Europe). In this way, Australia finds itself in a privileged position: at the centre and at the top. As if all this were not enough, the map also uses a colour gradient on the land areas, depicting Australia and New Zealand in white, and the areas moving away from this central point in various shades of orange.

If you would like to learn more about the history of map orientation, I wrote about the reason why here. the north is at the top.

Milhaud Maps

McArthur's universal corrective map (1979)

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