Logisitical planning for our 4wd trip through the Australian Outback next year is made easier by the excellent mapping resources provided by the Australian Government, through Geoscience Australia.
The most important item is their "Natmap Raster 250k Mapsheets 2002." The project, "provides georeferenced digital images of Geoscience Australia's 1:250 000 scale national maps covering the whole of Australia." Two cd's hold the entire 518 map collection. "Each map image is georeferenced to Map Grid of Australia (MGA94) coordinates, which allows interfacing with software that uses geographic positions such as GPS mapping software and geographic information systems (GIS). The MGA projection is ideal for measuring distances and areas."
How would we use the data? "NATMAP Raster 250K contains all the software needed to use the maps on the Windows 95/98/2000/NT4/Me/XP operating system - all you need is Internet Explorer 5.5. " Futhermore, folks have written some free software to allow this map data to be used inside OziExplorer. I also expect the 31die Precog/Terrain Visualizer could take advantage of the data.
The maps, updated as recently as June 2002, show nice detail that would be helpful in finding interesting sites to seek out -- things like abandoned mines, salt evaporators, and other ruins.
It only costs $99AUD, so I will order it and have it for December, when 31die is in town the Summit, when we plan our wicked works.
Geoscience Australia is worth browsing. One of the goodies is a zoomable/scrollable Landsat 7 Picture Mosaic of Australia