Decent online maps for Oz.

[jford]

This website is brilliant: http://www.topomap.co.nz/ You can search for named features, huts, towns, mountains etc, zoom in to 20m contour interval scale, all sorts of things. And it's free. It leaves Google Maps in the dust, even with the terrain turned on.

Does such a thing exist for the Western Island of New Zealand (you know, the big one)? If not, why not?

Full zoom out on the NZ topomap site suggests there's nothing to the west of NZ... Hmmm.

J.

[GPSGuided]

State based.

NSW: http://maps.six.nsw.gov.au or http://topo.notto.be/
TAS: http://maps.thelist.tas.gov.au/listmap/app/list/map

Why? Money, ideology, philosophy, evolution.

[jford]

I've used the land.vic.gov.au site for Victorian maps in the past, which is similar to the NSW and Tas ones you linked to, but these all seem clunkier than the NZ one. Thanks.

[GPSGuided]

They must have better programmers there in NZ.

[Gusto]

http://cycleroute.org/

This website has some pretty neat features. Probably more useful for 4WDriving or Mtbiking. but worth checking out none the less.

[GPSGuided]

Then there's always openstreetmap.org.

[dplanet]

Interesting; but j. could not wait for another day or two.

[gbagua]

Hey guys,

Is there anything out there better than Google Maps or Bing for Queensland? I am trying to track an area in D'Aguilar National Park.

I'm dreaming of something like this:

https://lpdaac.usgs.gov/dar_tool

Cheers!

[oyster_07]

Try:
http://www.openstreetmap.org

It has topo maps as it's 'cycle maps' layer.

It is a wiki-based map system, and it's accuracy is therefore only as good as the enthusiastic amateur who updates it. I personally would not trust it in complex terrain, however it can be useful when scoping and planning.

[RonK]

A couple of great mapping apps - I've had Maps.Me (formerly MapsWithMe) on my iPhone and iPad for a couple of years now, and it's been great for it's offline access.

Perhaps even more pertinent to this forum though is MapOut, which offers topo maps and the capability to upload and navigate tracks.

Edit: Just to clarify my post - MapOut allows tracks to be uploaded, but it's not actually a turn-by-turn GPS navigator.

[jford]

Open street map is good. Hadn't looked at it for a long time. As said above, wouldn't trust it, but good for scoping and planning. It certainly has more information on it than Google maps (at least in terms of contours and named features).

[gbagua]

Perhaps even more pertinent to this forum though is MapOut, which offers topo maps and the capability to upload and navigate tracks.

This looks good! Have you used it for localised areas in SE Q? I will shell out the 6.50 bucks if it's worth it.

Cheers.

Edit: I checked the stats and it says that uses Map data from OpenStreetMap.org; however when I go to OpenStreetMap I don't see any of the landscape features typical of topo maps which are being advertised in the app, am I missing something here?

[tastrax]

Open street maps comes in a few renditions - check out layers on the right hand side of the map. You just need to make sure that the app allows choice of styles.

http://www.openstreetmap.org/node/18753 ... 8&layers=C

This is using the cycling maps which are also OK for bushwalking

[tastrax]

The developer may have also created their own rendition

[RonK]

The developer may have also created their own rendition

Yes, the rendition depends very much on the app.

In Mapout for example, I can see the Munda Biddi track in WA on the overview, but when start zooming in it disappears - until I get down to 250m resolution and down to 100m before labels are visible.

But in ViewRanger the Munda Buddi is visible at all resolutions out to 80km, with labels visible at 1km.

But MapOut definitely has the best topo rendition.

[gbagua]

I just checked out ViewRanger and it's more than enough for me, thanks for mentioning it. Bonus: it's free and gives you the option of keeping the Bing Maps aerial view in "offline" mode and "gps off" to save battery power.

If more detail is required check the info provided below and upload your own topo map using free apps available (Motion X, Avenza PDF maps, mAPP, etc.). Motion X also gives you the option of showing your exact location while hiking.

Btw, here's a link to a worldwide topo viewer with various renditions as well:

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php

You can create your own tracks in this viewer and save them as gpx files.

[beachwalker]

A friend found this on the web:

I've recently created a set of 1:25000 digital topographic maps for Tasmania. I've made them available online for use with a mobile GPS app called Avenza PDF Maps (https://www.pdf-maps.com/) for Android and iOS. You can download the maps directly to your device from within the app; they will appear when you zoom in to Tasmania. There are 415 maps, with the same extents and numbering scheme as the TASMAP series.

Thought this might be of interest to you guys, with the 25k paper sheets soon to disappear. The official TASMAP digital maps ($2 each) will also work with the app. Smartphone+app seems like a viable alternative to dedicated handheld GPS these days.

The maps were made with my own software (nswtopo) using publicly-available spatial data from theLIST. (You can use the software to make your own maps of custom areas, but it's probably not beginner-friendly.) The maps contain most but not all of the features of the TASMAP maps. Spot heights and some cultural features are missing, but nothing of concern to a bushwalker.

I have downloaded these for free and they are excellent - the normal 1:25,000 Tasmap on your phone.