Tellurometer

View this record on the National Museum of Australia's website

Type: Geophysical survey equipment
Materials: Metal - non specific, Plastic - non specific, Wood
Collection: Australian Survey Office collection no. 2
Accession number: 2004.0080.0006

Description

A MRA101 Tellurometer in a green oblong plastic case with aluminium trim and a carry handle on top. The case has '19396' written in felt tip pen on the lid. The instrument is an oblong shape and has a concave surface on one side, with a cylindrical tripod attachment. The other side has a black panel with knobs, dials, switches and gauges. A black label reads 'Tellurometer / D.R. JOHNSTON & Co.' The top of the case has a black plastic handle. The case has a latch on two sides and two metal ring attachments at the lower edge and on the lid. The base of the case has a horizontal wooden cover. There is a cord, a headset, a cardboard box of fuses and a clear and black plastic cone accompanying the Tellurometer. There is also a padded leather strap with metal attachments.

About the collection

This collection of thirty-four items of land surveying equipment includes a number of tellurometers, measuring wires, a chronometer, theodolite, pantograph and a slide rule. This equipment was 'booked out' to different surveyors as they completed their land surveying jobs across Australia and Papua New Guinea between the 1940s and 1980s. It complements the Australian Survey Office collection no. 1. The documentation associated with this collection is held in the NMA Archive collection. The Australian Survey Office, and its predecessors, was responsible for all Australian Government surveying work. The powers of land administration were not ceded to the Commonwealth in 1901 but the gradual acquisition of territories obliged the Commonwealth to not only administer land laws but to provide maps and/or charts for a wide-variety of uses. Commonwealth surveying work included topographic mapping, geodetic surveying , surveying associated with major Commonwealth construction projects and work associated with the administration of all Commonwealth land holdings.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 6:48:08 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-17. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.