Pages 1-2

“What is this Larapinta Trail you speak?”

Pages 3-4

A wedge tail eagle ancestor and 1.6 billion year old rock patterns

Pages 5-6

Dancing seed pods and termite mound cathedrals

Pages 7-8

Secrets hidden in seeds and a million wishes

Orogenesis - a new way on old ground. Canada to Cabo, Baja to British Colombia. Pericu to Syilix land.

From Kalamunda to Albany through Tingle and Karri Forest, and alongside the sparkling Western Australian coastline.

The Bibbulmun is one of the world’s great long distance walks, and is shared with the west’s brilliant colour and song.

A map to accompany Federico Cabrera’s story of a tribute ride from Coyhaique to The End of The World, made in memory of Iohan Gueorguiev - a beloved bikepacker who travelled with openness, curiosity and generosity. A real bike wanderer. .

Federico’s story and stunning photos can be found here

1 of a set of 4 race maps - all originating in Spain

and heading West, North, East and South to a lighthouse on the coastline.

Commissioned by Elkilometrocero - 2022-2023

Gariwerd’s monoliths rise from flat stretched plains. To wander these rock escarpments is to wonder in awe at the tilted rock formations, fairy forests, tree giants, fern ways and waterfall amphitheatres. It is a place intertwined with cultural significance, and encounters with the rare and precious.

Commissioned by Grampians Peaks - 2021

Challenging climbs, sublime views, beautiful Spanish villages and iconic landmarks are all there to meet you in the 2023 Badlands route.

Commissioned by Badlands - 2023

Magellan Geese, Guanaco, Magellanic Woodpecker, Patagonian fox, Andean Condor.

Commissioned by Extremos - 2023

Along coral coastline, and across tableland forest, the vast channel flood plains and foothills of the Simpson Desert. A journey by bike to reach Uluru - the red centre, place of ancient wisdom, and all of the colours you have ever dreamed.

Private Commission - 2021

2150km from Pietermaritzburg to Wellington, South Africa.

Drawing size: 841mm x 594 mm

Commissioned - 2021

Paper size: 59.4cm W x 42 cm high

Personal project

The 700+ Kilometre walking track - from Tharwa to Walhalla.

Ink and watercolour on 300sgm cotton paper.

Paper size: 60 cm W x 76cm H

Private Commission - 2021

Part of the Great Dividing Range that runs along the east coast from almost the top of Australia to the bottom. The mountain range is smaller in height comparison to most of the world’s mountains, but it’s special in other ways - it is a massive continuous Indigenous song line where knowledge is kept, and is home to flora and fauna found no-where else in the world.

Private Commission - 2020

A self planned bike route across some of Europe’s most breathtaking mountains

Commissioned by Adventure Bike Racing - 2023

A bike packing gravel route between Medellin and Filandia, Colombia.

Commissioned by Stirl & Rae Haus Media, Canada - 2020

This map featured as part of the the short film Pasion de Grava

I have marvelled at the light catchers, forest giants, bubbling streams, paperbark stands, the call of owls, conversations with black cockatoos, and all the shades of the sea. The Prom appears endless in its beauty and it always feels so good to be immersed somewhere in its forest or sea.

Prints of these prom maps are available from my online store

Home to the world’s tallest flowering tree, the world’s fastest flying parrot, and the scariest cliff in the known universe. 2020

This map was shown as part of the 2020 group show “The Locals” at Outre Gallery, Smith Street, Melbourne

Prints of this map are available from my on-line store

My mum, sisters and I took a trip to Ireland together in March 2016. This is the story of our adventure. 2018

This is the story of a special school in the Cambodian village of Tanop. It’s a special school because my Mum raised the money to build it. This school has bought opportunity and learning to the community, but the Cambodian people have also taught us a lot. We’ve sat by the pond on so many nights with the kids - as the moon climbed from the horizon and the fire flies came - talked philosophy and discussed the world around us. Our friends have taken us to meet the 1000 year old tree, and the nun that lives on the hill. Together we’ve climbed the 400 steps to Phnom Pisor temple, looked out over the horizon, and realised that when we work together the sky really is the limit. 2018

From the wonders of Imperial Baghdad to the darklands at the end of the earth.

Cover art by Yehrin Tong.

the Abbasid Caliphate

from the Karakum to the Taklamakan

Original art for the Lost Cities of the Taklamakan

the Kingdoms to the North

the Mongol Invasions

the Kingdoms to the West original art

the Kingdoms to the East

Patterns of cropping and grazing on this family farm in northern NSW.

Private Commission - 2023

Connected properties at the outskirts of Blackall, Queensland, home to lots of sheep, bronze wings, and bowerbirds nests.

Ink and watercolour on 310 gsm Arches paper - 84cm x 66cm

Private Commission - 2023

The patterns of land in the beautiful north-east.

Ink and watercolour on paper. 96cm x 70cm

Private Commission - 2024

A collection of South Australian sheep properties and their patterns of water and wind, saltbush, animal tracks and human paths.

Ink and watercolour on 309gsm Saunders paper - 73cm x 57cm

Private Commission - 2021

A gathering of farm land, connected with rows and rows of native trees planted by the family over generations.

Ink and watercolour on 310 gsm Arches paper - 81cm x 67cm

Private Commission - 2022

Some historical inclusions on this farm map, alongside six brolgas, a favourite swim spot, and the entwined network of numerous creeks.

Private Commission - 2022

Patterns of crop, boundary and water way at the foot of Galore Hill.

Ink and watercolour on paper - 66cm x 45cm.

Private commission - 2022

The patterns of rice on the southern boundary of New South Wales

Ink and watercolour - 66cm x 85cm

Private Commission - 2023

This land, at the edge of the scenic rim has passed through generations of a family. Orchards and meadows cultivated and tended. Remnant rainforest to explore the past, and expansive views to the east to imagine the future.

Private Commission - 2021

In 2012 I walked the paddocks of my dad’s farm, and painted and drew as I went.

This map was published in the NCIS Atlas of Design - 2014

See here and in Galah Magazine - 2020 - Issue 1

Some of Melbourne’s famous coffee, mixed in with some characters, loved landmarks and cultural events.

Commissioned by Visit Melbourne 2023 for the Autumn edition of the Official Visitor Guide.

A wondrous, exploratory map of the much loved Queen Victoria Market, full of clues of the past, present and future.

There are portals, a river, tardigrades, dung beetles and even a few emus.

They all have their story and place in Melbourne’s past, and perhaps future.

This map was made for QVM’s “Purpose Precinct” and commissioned by STREAT, Melbourne - 2023.

Folded version of Queen Victoria Market for the Epicurious

I made this map for Kronotrop after having spent 6 weeks living in Istanbul. It’s one of the most popular maps I have ever made.

I remember taking the first draft to show Cagatay (my client and friend) and he said to me “I don’t want you to draw what is there - I want you to draw what you see”. And so my map of Istanbul became what I saw. 2015

This map was published in “Mind the Map” - a Gestalten 2015 pubication

A fold out poster accompanying the book.

Drawing by myself, text by Martijn Doolaard.

Detail of the printed poster

Where the earth is cracked and canyoned

Cactus covered wilderness and giant vultures.

Mayan ruins and white sand adventures

Dirt roads through the Andes

The road between the Amazon Basin and Peru’s arid coast

Geysers, salt lakes, volcanos and outstretched plains.

The path through dark green forest and fjords.

The World’s longest border crossing

Land of Ice, lava fields, and moving ground.

For the Bikepacking Journal, Issue 11

Imagine a place with wild coastlines, quiet enough to camp on the beach and wake up to the sunrise. Outer worldly landscapes of ancient cacti giants, especially breathtaking when in flower. Plants with hairy gangly, limbs stretching towards the sky. The howl of coyotes, the company of whales and frigate birds, and the best damm fish tacos on the planet. This is the Baja Divide.

This map was included as a folded poster in the 4th Issue of the Bikepacking Journal - 2020

A revised version of my first “Bikepacking the World” map. It contains some of the iconic and a lot of new routes imagined and discovered over the last few years.

This map was included as a folded poster in the 6th Issue of the Bikepacking Journal - 2021

A new bike packing loop in Colombia. Cloud forests, hummingbirds, spectacled bears, frailejohns and the artfully coloured city of Bogota.

Included in Issue 5 of the Bikepacking Journal - 2020

This is the spectacular Great Divide Mountain Bike Route. I heard stories of wolves howling, moose grunting and huge yellow moons, and then I got to draw this part of the world.

This map was included as a folded poster in the 3rd Issue of the Bikepacking Journal - 2019

From Omeo in the north to Ocean Grange in the South, Lindenow to the west and Mallacoota to the East, the inaugural Gippsland Winter Festival embraces the cold with a celebration of the treasures and the magic to be found in these places, and everywhere in between.

Commissioned by Gippsland Winter Festival - 2020

The many highlights of a small country town and its surrounds. Set close to the the largest Bunya Pine forest in the world, and home to the last remaining population of black-breasted button-quails.

Commissioned by Yarraman Business Group - 2021

The Township of Yarraman - atop the Great Dividing Range.

Commissioned by Yarraman Business Group - 2021

The edge of the Great Divide, including the high country hamlets of Crows Nest, Peachy, Spring Bluff, Emu Creek and Ravensbourne.

Commissioned by High Country Hamlets - 2019

This map of the southern Italian wine regions accompanies a story in WISH Magazine, which tells of these unforgiving wine growing areas. There is something quite magic about the idea of wine made from grapes grown on the side of Mt Etna - one of the world’s most active volcanos. The Vineyards are regularly sprinked with volcanic ash and I imagine how the earth moves, growls and rumbles as the grapes grow

Published in WISH magazine September 2019

Story title artwork and map

Map detail

“Road Trip West” - Toowoomba to the Dig Tree.

For Escape Magazine 2019

Page layout

Work in progress on the Pyrenees drawing

Scotland-England _ 1253km by bicycle

In Scotland we meet one of the most ancient creatures on the planet, and the landscape is so sublime we keep running off the road. But you live every day with the burden of rain on your back.

At the heart of an ancient land the tail of an Atlantic cyclone sweeps us along and we have no choice but to choose the direction it’s headed. More days are spent bunkered down hiding than riding, until we reach the sea on the other side. Then she repays our suffering with an autumn heatwave as new foreign tongues call from across the sea.

Belgium-France-Spain _ 2156km by bicycle + a train ride

After encountering a giant mechanical elephant at the docks in Nantes, we follow the laziness of a majestic meandering river. Frosty mornings make way for days of clear crisp skies above. We live with the migrating birds who put on the most spectacular flying displays you have ever seen. Land-based animals are intrigued by our rolling wheels and seem to want to join the migration. Every night we sleep to the sound of autumn leaves skipping and sliding off the tent and as the colours fall we feel the race against winter begin.

Italy-Greece_1336km by bicycle + 4 sea faring vessel rides

What a welcome we receive in the beautifully twisted part of the world that is southern Italy! Fishermen sing as they take their boats out to sea, and two Australians on bicycles are continuously run off the road in the Calabrians’ enthusiasm to thank us for everything we’ve done for their relatives who migrated to the great southern land. Sadly, we are in a hurry as we have a date with a boatload full of Bulgarian truck drivers who will accompany us to Greece.

It’s the beginning of winter when we roll through Greece. You might think it’s not the best time of year to be in the country of islands, but day after day we ride with the spectacle of hundreds of rainbows stretched out above us. And we ride with the promise of pots of gold at every turn. There’s great treasure to be found here.

Turkey_1534km by bicycle + a snow covered bus ride

We decide to wait out a bit of winter before heading east on our bikes. We live above a man in a magic wonderland shop, in a street named after a Bulgarian prince. Every day, we make art to the sound of dancing on the roof. After many weeks and so many stories, we’ve fallen in love with a city and we consider staying, but we have a precious Iranian visa so depart we must. The night before leaving, under the cover of snow, we hang our art in the streets of Istanbul.

Iran_998km by bicycle + lots of hanging out with friendly people

An Iranian prophet and Zoroaster once wrote, “Doing good for others is not a duty - it is a joy, for it increases our own health and happiness”, and the Iranian people embrace this with every part of their being. Most of the wonderful people we meet are unable to travel themselves, but this only seems to energise their exuberance in welcoming two travellers from another place.

Turkmenistan_62km by bicycle + a long taxi ride

Turkmenistan is one of the world’s most secretive countries. We make the mistake of applying for our visa on the same day as the Turkish truck drivers which means, like them, we are given only a three-day transit visa. When I ask the man in the visa window to please re-consider the duration as we are riding bicycles, he barks back at me “You’ll just have to ride faster!”

We cram our dismantled bicycles into the back of a blue taxi, pick up a spare tyre from the driver’s brother’s house, a loaf of bread from his first wife’s place, and then drive hell for leather for 9 hours across pot-holed-filled roads. Towards oncoming trucks on the wrong side of the road, with numerous stops for police checks and bribe payments, and to buy our driver coke when he starts nodding off...the bad roads are made even more surreal by our arrival at the other side at a city full of wide boulevards, adorned with statues and buildings made of gold.

Uzbekistan_1016km by bicycle

It is here we enter a world adorned with spectacular colour and texture. We ride the famed Golden Road to Samarqand. It is punctuated with bone-rattling pot holes but Samarqand really was golden and took our breath away. You could almost hear the sounds of Marco Polo and Genghis Khan whispering through the walls.

It’s that magic.

Tajikistan_2318km by bicycle

There’s nothing like being on the Roof of the World to be reminded of your place in it. These are the majestic Pamirs in Tajikistan. These are big mountains and they are surrounded by some other beastly neighbours. The tempestuous Tian Shan is north, the monumental Himalayas are east, and the enigmatic Hindu Kush live south. It takes days to climb up to the roof of the world, and only a few exhilarating hours to roll down the other side. But to have climbed and seen is worth the blood, sweat and tears.

Krygyzstan_663km by bicycle + a hitched ride in a vodka truck

We nearly don’t make it into Kyrgyzstan. At the isolated Tajik border crossing, corrupt guards threaten prison because of a missing passport stamp. You can’t outrun dogs and guns on a bicycle so we pay a bribe for freedom. On the other side, a magic descent welcomes us and all around the yurts silently puff while horses run free.

Kazakhstan_691km by bicycle

Almaty rises from the Kazak steppe, a ball of energy in its hurry to go places. In the steppe it appears as if there is little. It stretches out for days, maybe even years. If we ever make it to the edge I imagine we might just fall off the side. A lone wolf watches us from afar as we set up our tent. The landscape lies flat and stretched. At first it seems like there is nothing and then we see everything.

Tibet-China_1154km by bicycle + a 26 hour hardseat train ride

Atop the Tibetan plateaus are iridescent coloured lakes and the birth places of many of the world’s great rivers. Life is lived at a pace here most of the world forgot a long time ago. The door is still ajar to experience a culture over-endowed with history, humanity, tradition and community, but these doors are closing fast as all over, cultures are assimilated and disappear.

Here we pass through the door to Tibet and feel such magic and heavenly elation to witness and interact with these beautiful people and their lives.

May their flags fly free in the wind. What a place.

China_1125km by bicycle + an earthquake interupted train ride

China is a country of surprises. It’s addictive and like being on another planet, with its sublimely beautiful scenery in parts, and places exquisitely anchored in the past. But in its great leap into the future, it builds cities in the middle of no-where in the blink of an eye. Literally. Standing in defiance there are tiny houses who refuse to move while a city is built around and over them. The human spirit in China is alive and well and a thing to be greatly admired!

Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia_2800km by bicycle

In Cambodia we wake to the sound of one of the last great hornbills. He lives above a jungle of orchestras. The day before that we meet Big Red next to a 1000-year-old temple. On the day of our 17,000th kilometre the children of Cambodia celebrate our arrival at their school. We sit together by the village pond. As the moon rises and the fireflies arrive our young friends query where we have been.

“What did you see?” they ask.

One of the hardest things about travelling in distant lands is having to say goodbye to the people you meet, knowing that you’ll probably never meet again. This is the story of some of the characters (not all human) who during our bicycle adventure kept us company, inspired us, fed us, sheltered us, played their music, sung their song or told their story. Thank you to you all. We are all, no matter where we live, connected in some way.

Private commission to accompany a book of stories and photos of a European adventure - 2022

10 Year anniversary Map

Private Commission - 2020

Memories of a honey moon - 2020

The Kimberley Coastal Camp is perched on it’s own piece of coastal wilderness with whales, sea eagles, and dingos for neighbours. There might be a croc or two as well - but that’s a small price to pay for a dream place.

Ink and watercolour on 300gsm 100% cotton paper.

Private Commission - 2020

Torquay to Point Addis

Private Commission - 2021

What a privilege it was to draw this story. The journeys of two people who separately fled Hungary in the late 50’s - one by foot and the other by horse and cart. They took different routes to Australia, first going to a migration camp and then moving around a lot before eventually meeting each other and creating a life together. An incredible story - like so many who have left their home country to make a life elsewhere.

Names have been removed for privacy. Private Commission.

A drawing of memories and reflections of places lived and visited.

What I love about making these maps is listening to other people’s stories about what a place means to them. It reminds me how many stories there are overlaid onto every location across our shared planet home.

Private Commission - 2021

Back Roads is a long running Australian Television show telling the story of the spirit, purpose, difficulties and humous of outback Australia life. This map locates some of the rarely told stories and sometimes beautiful, sometimes strange places that exist along the backroads of this extraordinary country.

A map of places off the beaten track - seemingly insignificant places with incredible stories to tell.

This might look like one of the most simple maps I have drawn. But this one was deceptively difficult - essentially drawing a map of an unmapped place. Most of the information for this layout came from the very brave rescue divers, who while they were negotiating tight underwater corridors, also managed to rescue 12 boys of the Thai Wild Boars soccer club. It’s a story that captured world wide attention.

A map full of many people’s thoughts

Adding a message

Note adding at “One Night in Footscray”

Mad Cap

God Knows Darl

Star Fish

The bare bones - before the filling