National Base Map: Topographic Colour Mapping for Australia and External Territories

Australia and its external territories, including Norfolk, Lord Howe, Macquarie, Cocos (Keeling), Christmas, Heard and McDonald Islands, and the Australian Antarctic Territory, are covered by this seamless topographic colour mapping service. The data is sourced from Geoscience Australia, the Australian Antarctic Division, OpenStreetMap, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics, portraying cultural, hydrography, marine, transport, vegetation, and relief themes. Topographic information was checked in 2008 using satellite imagery and supplemented in 2009, with limited field checking noted.

Use Cases

• Create regional planning maps based on aggregated land use (ACLUMP) and transport data.
• Analyze coastal and marine features using bathymetry sourced from Natural Earth.
• Generate relief and terrain visualizations using processed SRTM DEM data.
• Develop cultural and infrastructure maps incorporating suburb boundaries from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Strengths

• Covers the entire Australian continent and multiple external territories, including Antarctic claims.
• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources, including Geoscience Australia, OpenStreetMap, and the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• Includes detailed topographic themes such as cultural, hydrography, marine, transport, vegetation, and relief.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Topographic information was last checked in 2008 and supplemented in 2009, with limited field checking, which may affect accuracy.
• 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 field sources.

Time Range

Topographic data checked in 2008-2009; SRTM data acquired February 2000; suburb data from 2018 and 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-14 03:19:04.812565; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Australia, Norfolk Island, Lord Howe Island, Macquarie Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Christmas Island, Heard and McDonald Islands, Australian Antarctic Territory.