How much of Australia isn't mapped via OSM

mtrax · 2008-06-23T21:51:48.000Z

A big question to kick of this sub-forum?
what areas are missing in OSM?
is it metro streets or Country Roads?
Looks like the East Coast is slowly filling up with “ways” whats the rest of the country like?

Phillip_Jubb · 2008-06-24T11:17:29.000Z

Speaking for WA,

The Perth Area is filling up, the south west has a few mappers slowly getting the major parts done, but large tracks of the area north of Perth are still untouched.

Can I interest any of those east of the border to come for a driving holiday.

It’s only the size of QLD but I promise, you be lucky to see anyone for day…

Biogenesis · 2008-07-01T05:31:18.000Z

Well, I recently drove from Newcastle (main roads only, many residential streets Yahoo traced but not named) to Yarram, Victoria and was very impressed with the main road coverage. I did it over 2 days and headed West towards Singleton and through Wellington via Gulgong then south through canberra/cooma/cann river/etc. The only stretch which was unmapped was the road from Gulgong to Wellington (which is not mapped ;)). Small town residential mapping was mostly non-existant.

The Canberra map was excelent, as was Cooma and Orange. In fact the Orange map helped me find the fastest way from Orange to the first night’s campsite: Carcoar Dam (which is now marked, as are all the tracks used to get there, no name tags though).

Once in Victoria I noticed that the area I’m staying in is mostly unmapped, except for major roads. So I’ve surveyed Port Albert, half of Yarram, a few backroads and the popular walks in the Tarra-Bulga Nat. Park.

In my experiance most national park coverage is poor. I’m living up in Lismore and have mapped the Minyon Falls trail and the Mt Warning summit trail (both of which need another survey or 5, reception on both walks is poor, my Legend HCx was up to 100m out in places and the track is a mess), other than that the national parks are just empty spaces. I’d like to use my tax return to get a mountain bike to help remedy this situation.

On the other hand the popular walks around Katoomba look rather complete, more complete than the Katoomba streets anyway! I’ll be up there on Thursday and will survey a few more tracks, probably out of Blackheath as there’s very few footways marked in the Blue Gum Forest.

Anyway, I’m rambling (as one does on rainy days). It would be really nice to have a wiki page of “Towns which need serious work”, even though this information can be easily looked up on the map the wiki page could be good psycologically if it’s used as a checklist.

mtrax · 2008-07-04T12:15:20.000Z

good job… hope you enjoyed your trip… worked hard on Canberra… mostly mapped … did some of Orange too.
I agree it would be good to get some idea on parts of Australia with large missing ways…
I note the routable garmin mapping is making some progress… see other threads…

Biogenesis · 2008-07-05T07:25:58.000Z

Yeah it was (well, still is) a good trip :). Many thanks for you efforts around Canberra!

Over the last couple of days I went up to the Blue Mountains. As far as I can tell most walks south of the highway (ie: in the Jamison Valley) are marked. There’s one track I know that’s not marked though, it goes from Valley of the Waters to Vera Falls.

In the Grose Valley the situation is somewhat different. The walks into/out of the valley are much harder and so are mostly not surveyed. Given this I spent 2 days mapping what I could. This included Victoria falls to Perrys Lookdown following the Grose River, and Pulpit rock to the Grand Canyon (and back, 22Km! Man my legs killed from that one :p). For what it’s worth my etrex Legend HCx worked brilliantly in the Grand Canyon :). As in, it never lost signal totally. The track is now marked to within about 50m. It’s impossible to get lost down there. To be more accurate we’d need high res aerial photography, on Google Maps it’s obvious where the canyon is.

Anyway, they should all be in later tonight.

Still to do in the Grose Valley:

Rodriguez (spelling?) Pass (Grand Canyon to Govetts Leap via Junction Rock) - Currently closed due to bushfire and landslide damage.
Junction Rock to Acacia Flat camping area
Lockley Pylon track - From the base of Perrys Track to Mt Hay Road.
Pearces Pass - Grose Valley exit which goes up to Bells Line of Road
A camping area out from Victoria Falls that I can’t remember the name of

Ebenezer · 2008-07-22T20:43:40.000Z

I have been mapping on OSM for almost a year now, and I have seen a big improvement in the coverage in Sydney (where I am based), Melbourne and Canberra. In NSW the regional coverage is also a lot better than it was a year ago, although coverage streets in regional towns varies a lot (from nothing to excellent).

MatthewC · 2009-03-04T10:56:18.000Z

How much of Australia isn’t mapped via OSM?

About 95% of the NT.