Bushwalk Australia

I bought a new Etrex 30 GPS yesterday, and after playing around a little bit, I came to the conclusion that the base map that it comes with is pretty hopeless for bushwalking.

After doing a little bit of searching I have found a few different topographic software programs, and was after some user feedback of their ease of use and quality.

The ones I have found are:

Garmin TOPO, $209.95, available as a 2.83GB download, or available on mini-SD (however is says on it's website: "Reduced price map updates are not available for these cards. If you want to update the maps, you must purchase a new card that includes the latest map data."

GPSOZ OzTopo, $229, on a USB flash drive, and preloaded on a 2GB mini-SD card.

There are probably other software that I haven't found, so please add them if you can recommend one.

Etrex 30 is a good unit.

I haven't tried either of those maps, but have heard good things about the OzTopo from 4WD people (not bushwalkers)

There are three more mappinig systems I would suggest you consider:

1. Openstreetmap. This is a community generated map. Depending on where you will be walking it is often the most detailed GPS map available.

Downloads here: http://www.osmaustralia.org/garmin.php

2. Shonky Maps. This is a not-so-shonky garmin edition of the freely available 1:250k Geoscience Australia mapping data.

Download here: http://shonkylogic.net/shonkymaps/

3. Contours Australia. This is a transparent contour overlay that can be used with both of the above maps. It's based on the NASA Space Shuttle topo mission SRTM data and is very handy.

It used to be downloadable for free, but I expect the hosting costs got out of hand so they are now available on a USB stick for $20.80 http://www.lizarddrinking.net/index.html

In Australia I use Openstreetmap with Contours Australia and I have yet to be disappointed.

photohiker wrote:In Australia I use Openstreetmap with Contours Australia and I have yet to be disappointed.

I have installed TAS.img on my GPS, how are the contour overlays installed? Is it simply copy and paste to the card?
I find the that the detail of contours that are in my Garmin Montana sadly lacking in detail, everything else is ok.

photohiker wrote:In Australia I use Openstreetmap with Contours Australia and I have yet to be disappointed.

I have installed TAS.img on my GPS, how are the contour overlays installed? Is it simply copy and paste to the card?
I find the that the detail of contours that are in my Garmin Montana sadly lacking in detail, everything else is ok.

Oh I forgot, Is it possible to see OSM maps in Basecamp?, if so I am not having much luck.

Davo1 wrote:

photohiker wrote:In Australia I use Openstreetmap with Contours Australia and I have yet to be disappointed.

I have installed TAS.img on my GPS, how are the contour overlays installed? Is it simply copy and paste to the card?
I find the that the detail of contours that are in my Garmin Montana sadly lacking in detail, everything else is ok.

See item 3 in my previous post. You need the contours australia dataset to get the contours.

Oh I forgot, Is it possible to see OSM maps in Basecamp?, if so I am not having much luck.

Ok, and good point

Garmin uses 2 different types of files depending on their destination.

.IMG Files. These are for GPS recievers only. Just drop them into the garmin folder on any recent Garmin GPS and they become available on the GPS immediately. Unfortunately, these files are not readable by Basecamp. (I think there is a hack somewhere that can convert them, but lets not go there)

Map Installers. These are .EXE files on Windows, and .GMAPI files on Macintosh. Double clicking the file installs the maps in the Basecamp maps directory structure, and they become available in Basecamp under the maps menu.

If you use the Computer a lot with maps, then the installers are a good way to go. You can transfer the tracks/routes/waypoints as well as the parts of the maps you want available on your GPS via Basecamp and it's utilities. This means that you only need to download one file and it will cater for both the computer and the GPS. These files aren't as readily available as the OSM Australia IMG files, but you can get them. Have a look here: OSM Downloads for Australia

These are regularly updated so the link will not work forever, it will probably expire when the files are regenerated. To get the updated maps, go to http://garmin.openstreetmap.nl/ and Select 'Australia' under the Oceania drop down, the click the link 'Download Map Now' and you will be presented with the latest download directory.

Be aware that the list down the left of the map on that page are links to specific .IMG files, (remember, not usable in basecamp, but usable in the GPS)

Also, I forgot...

There is another way of seeing the map installed on the GPS in Basecamp. A picture is worth a thousand words:

LoL.
Got the TAS.img to display in BC.
Couldn't figure out why the tracks would not display but I have that sorted as well.
Have to study up on the exe files you mention.
Have to get contours now, suppose that will take a while and then figure out how to get it to work .
Be interesting to see how they all compare.
I like how all my existing tracks show on the OSM map.
Never was game to play with the GPS too much as I was flying blind, managed to find a couple of sites today that steered me in the right direction, and really that's what I needed, somewhere to start.
Well off to study your post and take it a bit further.
Thanks for answering.

Hi Davo

I being Taswegien could catch up and set your unit up with Contour Australia 5 metres if you are interested. The complete Australia set is 2GB but you can load State by state depending on your units size. I am Launceston/Devonport based.

The trick with Garmins is enabling and disabling the correct maps on the unit. As the contours are transparent you enable them them and the OSM image you want. I also have Shonkey

Good idea to play with free stuff before shelling out on commercial maps as commercial maps are often poor for bushwalking.

Cheers

Sounds good Ent.
Just about got it figured I think.
The Contours would certainly be appreciated, I only need Tasmania, I can get into enough strife around home first without worrying about elsewhere.
Size is no worry as I still have 4GB free.
I'm only about 15-20minutes out of Devonport so when you are up this way let me know and we can meet somewhere.
I'll pm details if that's ok.

No problems. Look forward to catching up.

Cheers

I bought an Etrex 30 in December and the Garmin Topo maps came with it by redemption.
I reckon they are pretty good.
Have been in the bush 23 days using them since and like them but don't have anything to compare to as previously borrowed my Dad's Garmin with no mapping capability.

Cheers,
Andrew

Andrew,
I have a Garmin Montana 650t loaded with the Aus/NZ map and find that in a lot of cases it is satisfactory, but at other times I find the topo sadly lacking.
It seems that where one mapping system fails another picks up, this is only in relationship to the topo side of things, I'll leave the operations of each individual system out of the equation for the time being.
At this stage I cannot comment either on the Contour Australia overlays as I don't have them loaded yet but I have looked at many commercially available maps and if you could put them all together it would be fantastic. I was leaning away from the Garmin maps until I found that where the others had great detail in certain locations that I required, in other locations they didn't, whereas the Garmin did - stalemate.
To date the best I have been able to come up with is a combination of the GPS and traditional hardcopy maps.
The technology side of things today is incredible to what we had years ago. What we can do with the home computer and a handheld GPS is outstanding, we just need some of the components of the total system to catch up - namely TOPO, hence the upcoming tryout of Contours Australia.
I am looking forward to the day when the total digital side of things actually catches up with what we have available on paper, it's close but in my opinion just not quite there yet..
Keeping in mind of course that paper maps and a compass will never be replaced 100%, at least at the moment .
So there you have it from my point of view - not a matter of being a disgruntled customer, just trying to improve what we have available to gain more knowledge.
Cheers
Davo1

Purchased a copy of Contour Australia 5m. It's generally quite good but for Uluru. The south side of Uluru is a complete flat line. Something went horribly wrong there. Dooghan said it's an issue with the source data. Shame as the old v1.21 looked normal apart from the less detailed data.

quick note to say "Thank You",

Just got an Oregon 450, trying to come to grips with the beast.

Am used to much older stuff ... Etrex Legend, GPSMap60 and old versions of MapSource ... a bit of a learning curve.

Your notes really helpful.

Ta

dq.

photohiker wrote:Also, I forgot...

There is another way of seeing the map installed on the GPS in Basecamp. A picture is worth a thousand words: