Bushwalk Australia

Hi everyone:

I've just moved to Australia from Canada and am trying to wrap my head around who produces the topographic maps for the country. A lot of internet searching has left me with a lot of questions. Would I be right in guessing that there is no one standard scale that covers the entire country? In Canada, apart from the far north, the standard topographic map for hikers is 1:50,000 and you can get coverage of the entire country. In my research here, I've found 1:25,000 for parts of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, 1:50,000 for parts of Queensland and Western Australia, and some parts of the country, inland NSW for example at 1:100,000. I'm so confused I haven't even started looking for NT yet!

Am I missing something or does the map scale vary across the country?
Is there any one place where you can buy digital (prefer raster not vector) maps of the different states? So far, I have found that I can buy raster maps of certain states (NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania) at varying scales (1:25,000 to 1:100,000) from Memory Map? and vector maps from Garmin.

I have found the SIX site for NSW topographic maps, but have found it too cumbersome to use to plan long bushwalks.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Sandy

The only set of maps that I know of that cover the entire country that are digital and downloadable in raster format (or vector format) are those from the goverment's "MapConnect" site at: http://mapconnect.ga.gov.au/MapConnect/ ... reement=on

Unfortunately, they're only 1:250k scale, so not really suitable for bushwalking.

Other than that, each state has it's own mapping agency.

Land management is a state responsibility, and this means there are 6 different mapping agencies. There is a NATMAP national mapping series at 1:100000 - not sure if this is still up to date.

Map scale is mainly a function of population density and usage - you may well find 1:25000 covering popular hiking areas, 1:50000 for most populated areas and 1:100000 for outback areas, all within the same state.

Sounds like we are not as well organised as Canada.

sandym wrote:Hi everyone:

I've just moved to Australia from Canada and am trying to wrap my head around who produces the topographic maps for the country. A lot of internet searching has left me with a lot of questions. Would I be right in guessing that there is no one standard scale that covers the entire country? In Canada, apart from the far north, the standard topographic map for hikers is 1:50,000 and you can get coverage of the entire country. In my research here, I've found 1:25,000 for parts of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania, 1:50,000 for parts of Queensland and Western Australia, and some parts of the country, inland NSW for example at 1:100,000. I'm so confused I haven't even started looking for NT yet!

Am I missing something or does the map scale vary across the country?
Is there any one place where you can buy digital (prefer raster not vector) maps of the different states? So far, I have found that I can buy raster maps of certain states (NSW, Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania) at varying scales (1:25,000 to 1:100,000) from Memory Map? and vector maps from Garmin.

I have found the SIX site for NSW topographic maps, but have found it too cumbersome to use to plan long bushwalks.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Sandy

Yes, it's a monumental pain. You can't even get paper maps for the whole of the Australian Alps in a consistent scale. Drives me up the wall.
Probably item two on my 'things I won't miss when I move back to Tassie' list.

Relativity haha, returning to Australia and what I consider to be excellent and easily available maps!

I like this site to help find/preview maps and just to see what is available:
http://www.mud-maps.com/maps