Australian National Road Network Geometry and Attributes

National Roads by Geoscape is a digital representation of Australia's road network, including vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle routes as well as ferry crossings. The dataset provides an aggregated national view compiled from multiple jurisdictional sources, which are revised regularly. It is published by Geoscience Australia and was last updated in March 2026.

Use Cases

• Route optimization and logistics planning using road geometry and ferry route features.
• Spatial analysis of transport infrastructure coverage by querying road type and surface attribution.
• Creating basemaps for national cartography by integrating the linear road network features.
• Assessing connectivity for non-motorized transport by analyzing pedestrian and bicycle route data.

Strengths

• Covers the entire land mass of Australia, including offshore islands.
• Aggregated from multiple jurisdictional sources that are revised regularly.
• Includes linear features for vehicular, pedestrian, bicycle, and vehicle ferry transportation.

Limitations

• Excludes railways, tramways, driveways, and passenger ferry routes.
• Source data is supplied in varying formats and at different levels of quality.
• Norfolk Island is currently not included in the geographic coverage.

Provenance

Source

Geoscience Australia Data, via the data.gov.au platform.

Collection Method

Compiled and aggregated from multiple jurisdictional data sources.

Freshness

Updated regularly, with a last update recorded in March 2026.

Geography

Land mass of Australia, including offshore islands (excluding Norfolk Island).