National Base Map WMTS: Topographic Colour Mapping for Australia

The National Base Map service provides seamless topographic colour mapping for the whole of Australia and its external territories. Data is sourced from Geoscience Australia, the Australian Antarctic Division, OpenStreetMap, and other government programs like ACLUMP for vegetation. Topographic information was checked in 2008 using satellite imagery and supplemented in 2009, with limited field checking.

Use Cases

• Create detailed topographic maps based on cultural, hydrography, marine, transport, vegetation, and relief themes.
• Analyze land use and vegetation patterns based on aggregated ACLUMP data.
• Integrate multi-source geospatial data for regional planning, combining Geoscience Australia, OpenStreetMap, and ABS suburb layers.

Strengths

• Covers the entire Australian continent, outer islands, external territories, and the Australian Antarctic Territory.
• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources including Geoscience Australia, Australian Antarctic Division, and OpenStreetMap.
• Includes specific high-resolution mapping for Christmas Island (1:30,000 scale) and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (1:25,000 scale).

Limitations

• Limited field checking was undertaken; the description states 'some information may not be accurate'.
• Topographic information was checked in 2008 and supplemented in 2009; currency of some source data may be a concern.
• 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 government topographic mapping programs, satellite imagery, and open-source projects.

Time Range

Primary topographic information checked in 2008; SRTM data acquired February 2000; suburb data from 2018 and 2020.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-04 08:14:18.470540; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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