When Robert Quin emerged from a Scots church with his 17-year-oldbride, Margaret, in 1847, he was two years into his career as a surveyor. Recently promoted, he was working on a detailed survey of Great Britain and would not have envisaged a life too far beyond the limits of his charts.

In 1863, the Quins' lives changed forever when Robert accepted the position of Assistant Surveyor in Western Australia. Working under Surveyors General John Septimus Roe, Malcolm Fraser and John Forrest, Robert spent 23 years mapping the coast, topography and land grants of the fledgling colony. He carried on through heartbreak and ill-health in the face of bureaucratic indifference, leaving a legacy that underpins maps still in use today.

In this meticulously researched biography Robert and Margaret's great-great-grandson lays bare an important Western Australian story.