ASDST Stone Quarries Pre1750 Model: Predictive Likelihood for Aboriginal Sites in NSW

The Aboriginal Sites Decision Support Tool (ASDST) provides raster GIS models predicting the likelihood of Aboriginal site features across New South Wales. The 'STQ' layer specifically models the likelihood of stone quarries prior to European colonization, with cell values ranging from 0 to 1000. The current Version 7.5 was produced by the NSW Department of Planning, Industry and Environment in 2020 at 50m resolution.

Use Cases

• Assess landscape-scale risk to Aboriginal stone quarries based on predictive likelihood scores.
• Inform regional planning decisions by identifying areas of high cultural heritage sensitivity.
• Prioritize field survey locations for stone quarry sites using the model's relative likelihood values.
• Compare pre-colonisation likelihood with current landscape models to evaluate accumulated impacts.

Strengths

• Provides a specific predictive layer for stone quarries (STQ) among 10 distinct Aboriginal site feature types.
• Model outputs are at 50m resolution in a Geographic Coordinate System, as of the 2020 Version 7.5 update.
• Likelihood values are standardized on a 0 to 1000 scale across all feature models for relative comparison.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to data_gov_au, being specific to New South Wales, Australia.

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Collection Method

Derived from the Aboriginal Heritage Information Management System (AHIMS) using predictive modelling.

Time Range

Models the pre-1750 (pre-European colonisation) landscape.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-13 02:37:56.719513; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Covers the full extent of New South Wales, Australia.