Australia is covered by 516 topographic maps at a scale of 1:250,000, the largest scale providing full continental coverage. Each standard map covers approximately 1.5 degrees longitude by 1 degree latitude, depicting features like roads, rail, vegetation, hydrography, and 50-meter contours. The data is provided by Geoscience Australia in digital PDF format with coordinates in GDA94/GDA2020 and UTM projection.
Use Cases
- Terrain analysis and elevation modeling based on 50-meter contour intervals
- Infrastructure planning and routing based on road and rail network data
- Environmental and land cover studies based on vegetation and hydrography features
- Creating regional base maps for GIS projects based on standardized sheet coverage
Strengths
- Provides full coverage of Australia with 516 map sheets at a consistent 1:250,000 scale
- Contains multiple feature types including infrastructure, vegetation, hydrography, and administrative boundaries
- Coordinates are provided in modern datums (GDA94, GDA2020) and UTM projection
Limitations
- Data is provided as PDF files, which may require conversion for direct GIS use
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
- The description notes map sheets may contain information from surrounding sheets, which could affect edge matching
Provenance
- Source
- Geoscience Australia Data
- Collection Method
- Part of the published AUSTopo - Australian Digital Topographic Map Series
- Time Range
- null
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-03-25 18:53:18.780975; freshness should be verified
- Geography
- Australia