Background:
The map shows New South Wales' new (and current) boundaries, with the state's 'Pastoral Districts' delineated; railways from Ports Hunter and Jackson are shown, along with their proposed extensions inland. Roads and telegraph lines are also indicated. Relief is shown by hachure. An inset map in the lower left shows the state's location on the Australian continent. These features are shared by the authors' other maps of New South Wales, the 1871 Map of New South Wales and the 1878 Sketch map of New South Wales showing the principal agricultural districts. Specific to this map, areas printed in color show the regions understood to be rich in minerals: Kerosene shale, coal, tin, iron, silver, copper, gold and 'diamonds and other gems.' The data on the map reflects the experience of some twenty years of prospecting in New South Wales, but predate the first systematic geological survey of the state, which would not be completed until 1880. The map specifies that the gold fields are 'proclaimed' gold fields, that is to say, permissible for prospectors. No prospector's claim was valid unless it fell within the limits of a 'proclaimed' field, which was officially recognized by the state and administered by a commissioner. The earlier 1873 edition of this map distinguishes between 'proclaimed' and 'unproclaimed' fields; in the present edition, the 'unproclaimed' fields have disappeared entirely. By 1876, control of gold mining in the state had passed from the Department of Lands to a new administration, the Department of Mines; in conjunction with this, mining had become less of a prospector-driven, 'gold rush' affair and more the province of mining companies employing more sophisticated processes, capable of extracting wealth from existing claims in which lower-capitalized operations were ineffective.

John Tayler 1861 - 1875 was an Australian cartographer and draftsman, employed by the NSW Surveyor Generals Office. His 1871 Map of New South Wales appears to have provided the basis for the bulk of the maps of the state produced prior to the Geological survey of 1880.

Richards, Thomas (1831 - 1898)
Thomas Richards, government printer, was born on 21 December 1831 in Pitt Street, Sydney, son of James Richards, builder, and his wife Mary, née OBrien. He was baptized a Catholic. His parents died in his infancy and he was reared by his aunt, the daughter of a sergeant-major in the First Fleet, and educated at Ebenezer on the Hawkesbury River. Having answered an advertisement for an intelligent youth, on 1 January 1845 he was engaged as an apprentice in the Government Printing Office, where he advanced as clerk, proof-reader, compositor, pressman, overseer and, in 1854, superintendent. In June 1859 he became government printer and inspector of stamps at a salary of £500, which had been reduced from his predecessors £850, but was raised to £600 in 1863; he had a staff of seventy. As he lacked London experience his appointment was unpopular. From 1 July 1879 he was also registrar of copyright.
During Richardss innovative administration, with increasing volume of work, the office expanded its functions and techniques. In 1863 he introduced photo-lithography and, after he had observed plant in Victoria in 1864, he added stereo-typing and electro-typing. In 1868 following the establishment of extra branches a new fast process of photo-lithography was invented by John Sharkey whose experiments were encouraged and assisted by Richards. The Sydney Morning Herald praised the gems of photo-lithographic art the Printing Office displayed at the 1870 Intercolonial Exhibition at Sydney. Later Richards initiated helio-type or photo-mechanical printing, introduced a perforating machine and invented a method of drying stamps with heat from gas. He devised an arithmotype bars system for numbering debentures which was adopted in all the colonies and England; he alleged the Bank of England took the patent without acknowledgment.
Frequently working long hours, Richards was criticized by some politicians for his administration and his publication of documents of allegedly limited public interest. He defended himself adequately before the 1870 select committee on the Government Printing Office, resisting suggestions of reductions in salaries and praising his men for the finest examples of the modern technique of photo-lithography seen in the colonies; and he admitted ambitions to produce an Australian geography and natural history, a year-book and dictionary of names for New South Wales. Looking back in 1891 he wrote, I had opposed to me a truculent minister, a truculent under-secretary and a truculent newspaper proprietor … I beat them but came out of the fray wounded in mind body and estate. He also had trouble with trade unions in difficult industrial times for heads of government departments and in 1875 antagonized the Trades and Labor Council by threatening to close the Office against all union men.
In 1877 Richards represented the government on an English committee to celebrate the quatercentenary of Caxtons introduction of printing. With twelve months leave he also studied advanced methods and bought new machinery. At the 1878 Paris Universal Exhibition he won a silver and two bronze medals and at the 1880 Melbourne International Exhibition he won five high diplomas for printing, bookbinding and photography. The 1883 Amsterdam Exhibition awarded him a gold and a silver medal, and the Printing Office was commended at other important exhibitions from 1862 to 1886. In 1882 Richards compiled, edited and printed the highly regarded New South Wales in 1881, which was translated into French; next year the office produced An Epitome of the Official History of New South Wales.
On 23 April 1861 Richards had joined the Volunteer Rifles as a second lieutenant. A good shot and member of the New South Wales Rifle Association, in 1885 he became lieutenant-colonel of the first regiment, Volunteer Infantry; he resigned next year. In November 1886, because of rapidly failing eyesight, Richards retired as government printer on a pension of £480; he left a staff of 400 and an office with sixty-one new departments. On 31 August 1898 he died at Manly and was buried in the Anglican cemetery there. On 29 January 1865, with Anglican rites, he had married Zara Bell, by whom he had three daughters and two sons who survived him.