David Gerard (fun at thingy.apana.org.au) wrote: There are two possible answers to that question. 1) If the maps are published then they have been public domain since 1912 when the Copyright Act 1911 came in, and possibly since 1904 when 50 years since publication expired (although Crown copyright did not exist in its present form back then). 2) If the maps are unpublished then they are still in copyright and will remain so until the start of 2040 when the transitional provisions of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 come to an end.