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

Seamless topographic color mapping for all of Australia, including its outer islands and external territories like Christmas Island and the Australian Antarctic Territory. The service integrates data from Geoscience Australia, the Australian Antarctic Division, and OpenStreetMap, with vegetation data from the Australian Collaborative Land Use and Management Program. Topographic information was checked in 2008 using satellite imagery and supplemented in 2009, though limited field checking means some information may not be accurate.

Use Cases

• Create regional planning maps based on integrated cultural, hydrography, and transport themes.
• Analyze coastal and marine features using bathymetry data sourced from Natural Earth.
• Study vegetation patterns across the Australian continent based on the aggregated ACLUMP layer.
• Develop topographic visualizations for the Australian Antarctic Territory using data from the Australian Antarctic Division.
• Compare road network representations derived from OpenStreetMap data at different scales.

Strengths

• Covers the entire Australian landmass, including external territories like Cocos (Keeling) Islands and Heard Island.
• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources including Geoscience Australia and the Australian Antarctic Division.
• Includes specific high-resolution mapping for Christmas Island (1:30,000 scale) and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (1:25,000 scale).
• Uses SRTM elevation data acquired by NASA in February 2000, processed for stripe removal and void filling.

Limitations

• Limited field checking was undertaken; the description states some information may not be accurate.
• Topographic information was last checked and supplemented in 2008-2009, which may affect currency for dynamic features.
• 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 topographic mapping datasets and satellite imagery.

Time Range

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

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 17:49:53.287860; freshness should be verified.

Geography

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