Australian National Topographic Base Map Without Labels

Australia's National Base Map provides seamless topographic colour mapping for the entire country and its external territories, including Norfolk, Lord Howe, Macquarie, Cocos (Keeling), Christmas, Heard, McDonald Islands, and the Australian Antarctic Territory. The service integrates data from Geoscience Australia, the Australian Antarctic Division, OpenStreetMap, and other sources, portraying cultural, hydrography, marine, transport, vegetation, and relief themes. Topographic information was checked in 2008 using satellite imagery and supplemented in 2009.

Use Cases

• Creating custom thematic maps based on the underlying topographic features like vegetation and relief.
• Serving as a base layer for spatial analysis involving cultural, transport, or hydrographic data.
• Integrating with other geospatial datasets using the consistent, seamless coverage of Australia and its territories.

Strengths

• Covers the whole of Australia and numerous external territories, providing seamless national coverage.
• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources including Geoscience Australia, Australian Antarctic Division, and OpenStreetMap.
• Portrays multiple thematic layers including cultural, hydrography, marine, transport, vegetation, and relief.

Limitations

• Limited field checking was undertaken; the description notes some information may not be accurate.
• Topographic information was primarily checked in 2008 and supplemented in 2009, which may affect currentness.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia, Australian Antarctic Division, OpenStreetMap, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Natural Earth.

Collection Method

Aggregated from multiple mapping datasets, satellite imagery, and other sources.

Time Range

Topographic information checked in 2008, supplemented in 2009; SRTM data acquired February 2000.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 09:25:02.685070; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia, including outer islands and external territories (Norfolk, Lord Howe, Macquarie, Cocos (Keeling), Christmas, Heard, McDonald Islands) and the Australian Antarctic Territory.