The portfolio with the gold stamped title "Geological Survey of Victoria", contains 51 sheets maps. There is a pocket attached to the inside front cover containing Selwyn's Geological Map of Victoria, a large folding canvas-backed map in color (114 x 170 cm). The map is printed in fourteen colours, indicating various geological formations throughout the State. Mountain and river systems are clearly shown as well as railway lines and principal towns. Followed by 8 loose maps (46 x 71 cm).
The atlas itself starts with an index map indicating the progress made up to April 30, 1864; and finally, 51 sheets.
Several of the sheets include geological cross-sections, and all contain detailed explanations on geology and mining.

This most important atlas contains all the geological maps of the province of Victoria (Australia). This particular example was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867 under the title “Geological Survey of Victoria,” and afterwards presented to the Geological Society of France by the director of the Corps of Geological Engineers, Mr. Alfred R. C. Selwyn, of Melbourne.

Jules Marcou, president of the Geological Society of France in 1865, wrote : "This colony, whose name did not even exist twenty years ago, and which was at first known only from a few travelers’ accounts around the world as a place of exile for convicts, under the name of Port Phillip, and which today still has fewer than 700,000 inhabitants; this antipodean country," adds Mr. Marcou, "maintains a staff of fifteen geological or mining engineers, at an annual cost of one hundred to one hundred and twenty thousand francs, with an entire establishment of museums, courses, workshops for map draftsmen, and the publication of reports, statistics, and mineral assays." [Jules Marcou].
Jules Marcou: Franco-American geologist and cartographer, president of the Geological Society of France in 1865.

Alfred Richard Cecil Selwyn (26 July 1824 – 19 October 1902) was a British geologist and public servant, director of the Geological Survey of Victoria from 1852 to 1869.
In 1852 the Colonial Office appointed Selwyn director of the Geological Survey of the recently founded colony of Victoria, where he built up an excellent staff including Richard Daintree, C. D. H. Aplin, Charles Smith Wilkinson, Reginald Murray, Edward John Dunn, Henry Yorke Lyell Brown and Robert Etheridge, Junior, with Sir Frederick McCoy as paleontologist. He was a strict disciplinarian and from the beginning set a very high standard of work in his department.

During his 17 years as director, over 60 geological maps were issued which were among the best of their period: they were models of accuracy which established a tradition of geological mapping in Australia.
Selwyn was well qualified to analyze the Silurian strata. He was also responsible for several reports on the geology of Victoria and added much to the knowledge of gold-bearing rocks. Selwyn discovered the Caledonian goldfield near Melbourne in 1854 and in the following year reported on coal seams in Tasmania, until in 1869 the Colonial Legislature brought the Survey to an abrupt termination on economic grounds.
More info on Selway: E.J. Dunn 'Biographical Sketch of the Founders of the Geological Survey of Victoria', Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Victoria, 23 (1910), 8 and Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 6, pp.102-3.

Map coloring
A solution to the problem of map colouring for the publication was proposed by Pittman, who suggested that they be colour printed by lithography.
Colour printing of geological maps was still in its infancy in Britain, the first having been printed in 1851 and the second in 1853, and was only practised in a small way in Germany, Austria and France.
The Geological Survey of Great Britain did not adopt colour printing until 1895.58 Selwyn's staff had to be innovators in this instance, since they were isolated from the European centres of map printing.

It was first proposed to use outside contractors. Local lithographic printers were therefore invited to tender for a special geological map of Ballarat that had been compiled by John Phillips, independently of Selwyn, at the direction of the Surveyor General.
The successful tenderer was the firm of Fergusson and Mitchell, but the results of their work were far from satisfactory. Selwyn then tried one of the unsuccessful tenderers, Joseph Aresti, who seems to have been the first person to colour print a geological map in Britain, having printed the first edition of Robert Mylne's geological map of London in 1851.
Aresti printed two maps for Selwyn in 1858, but his attempts were not much better than that of Fergusson and Mitchell. Certainly Selwyn, a very finicky man, was far from satisfied.'
Pittman then suggested that Thomas Ham (1821- 1870), an engraver and lithographer, at that time on the staff of the Lands Department's Lithographic Branch, be asked to take on the job 'in house'.
Ham was transferred to the Geological Survey in January 1859, a lithographic press was purchased, and the first colour printed maps of the Melbourne and Kyneton areas were run off during that year.
The work was done on a hand press and each sheet of paper had to go through the press once for each colour. Since there were up to seven colours, it was a very time-consuming process to print 1,000 copies of each map.
By the end of 1859, Selwyn had thirty quarter sheets ready for publication, one was in press and four had been printed but not released to the It was obvious that the arrears in printing were not to be overcome using ordinary lithographic printing techniques. Pittman and Ham had investigated the possibility of using a power press in the middle of 1859 and, using some family connections of Ham, a steam power press was purchased in March 1860. Agreement was reached for the Geological Survey Lithographic Branch to be moved and set up in the basement of the Government Printing Office and for the power press to be connected to the Government Printer's steam engine. This new method of colour printing was so quick and cheap that arrears in map work were soon overcome and the sale price of the maps was reduced. The application of steam power to colour printing was a major innovation in Australia. Indeed, Melbourne commercial lithographic printers did not adopt this system for another six or seven years.

Gold
Shortly after the discovery of gold in this State Governor La Trobe, recognizing the importance of the deposits and with an eye on the revenue to be derived from mining on Grown lands, asked the Home Government to select an officer with geological attainments for appointment as mineral surveyor. In May, 1852. Mr. Alfred Selwyn was appointed to the position and commenced duty in December of that year. With one assistant, Selwyn carried on a survey of the gold fields, coal fields, and general geological structure of the State until 1855, when he was provided with two extra assistants. In 1857 the staff was raised to six. and by 1860 had reached a total of twelve.
Considerable difficulty was caused in the early operations by the absence of surveys on which to base the work and Selwyn, writing in December. 1856, stated : " From the commencement I have endeavoured to conduct the survey so far as the limited means at my disposal and the great difficulty of obtaining correct topographical maps and efficient assistance would allow, on exactly the same plan as that adopted by the English Geological Survey."
Owing to the lack of topographical maps the survey was compelled to prepare topographical as well as geological plans.
Early in 1858 the printing of geological maps from engraved copper plates was commenced ; for a time the sheets were hand-coloured, but later were printed and coloured by lithography.

Provenance : Geological Society of France (1865-2026) This particular example was exhibited at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1867 and afterwards presented to the Geological Society of France by Alfred R. C. Selwyn. 

The Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 was, according to historian Volker Barth, “the most consistent attempt ever made to literally create a world exhibition” (Barth 23). The second World’s Fair of the French Second Empire brought together approximately 50,000 exhibitors from 32 countries and attracted an estimated 11 million visitors over eight months. It attempted to cover everything everywhere: Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia competed in all fields of endeavor, from industry to fine art but also social organizations and cultural heritages. 

  Interesting reading : The Geological Survey of Victoria under Alfred Selwyn, 1852-1868 by Thomas A. Darragh.