Map shows the first layout of Melbourne by Government surveyor Robert Russell, who accompanied Governor Richard Bourke in 1837. The surveyed blocks extend from present-day Flinders Street to Lonsdale Street, and Spring Street to Spencer Street, with extensive vacant land west to a salt lake (afterwards Batman's Swamp, later drained), north beyond Flagstaff Hill and south towards South Melbourne. Vegetation coverage is indicated, and tracks and existing buildings and cultivated land are shown.Printed map was created by Day & Haghe, Lithographers to the Queen, sometime after 1838, when the company received its Royal appointment. Copies of the 1837 map exist in several major map collections in Australia; most are uncoloured. This particular map is the earliest in the Kew Historical Society's map collection. It is a nationally significant artefact. Black and white lithographed map hand-coloured in blue and yellow gouache of the town of Melbourne in 1837. In contrast to the original lithograph, the river and the township blocks are coloured blue and yellow. A similar, partly coloured copy is in the collection of the University of Melbourne.maps - melbourne - 1830s, governor sir richard bourke, robert russell - surveyor, cartography