Mr Demaj was given the honour as the chief cartographer for the recent publication of EARTH, which was judged the world’s best atlas at the 24th International Cartographic Conference.

Mr Demaj accepted the award on behalf of the Australian publishing company, Millennium House, and was thankful to have been recognised for his efforts.

Mr Demaj said he was thrilled to have been given the award by an independent jury of seven professors and doctors of Cartography from the International Cartographic Association.

“It’s a tremendous honour as a freelance cartographer,” Mr Demaj said.

His achievement is made more significant by the fact that he did it all locally.

“Essentially I was in charge of the cartography for the book. This was all done from my studio here in Bendigo”, Mr Demaj said.

He said he hoped that his success would make people aware that beautiful maps still existed.