Welcome to XNATMAP

A site for preserving NATMAP's (The Division of National Mapping) history and maintaining contact with the people who were part of that history.
As the Australian Landsat Station (ALS), later the Australian Centre for Remote Sensing (ACRES) was part of the Division its history also forms part of this site.
The XNATMAP site is being archived in perpetuity as part of the National Library of Australia and related State Libraries PANDORA initiative.

Information on map reading and interpretation, specifically for Natmap medium scale topographic maps, can be found in
Natmap’s Topographic Maps : a guide to map reading and Notes on Map Reading by Reg Ford and Bob Goldsworthy.

What's New

As of 13 August 2020

Geodetic Surveys Natmapper Jim Steed has recently scoured his archive and provided the following documents for the site :

Readjustment of the Australian Geodetic Survey, 1979, and follow-on paper
The Accuracy of Australia's Geodetic Network, 2005
Map Production Story a 1979 publication by the Army Survey Regiment. The Army's method had many parallels with the methodology used by Nat Map
The Survey of South Georgia, 1958 paper by Tony Bomford
Wild T3 Theodolite technical brochure
Kern DKM3A Theodolite technical brochure

Stanley Harold Stafford (1918-1990)
Stan Stafford worked in Nat Map's Melbourne and Dandenong offices from around 1965 to 1981. During his time with Nat Map Stan worked as a storeman, a motor driver and as a technical assistant. Stan was an outgoing, grass roots character who sadly passed away in June 1990 at 71 years of age. In this article Laurie McLean provides a short biography on Stan.

The Division of National Mapping's Geodetic Survey of Papua New Guinea
This personal perspective was written by John Allen and David Cook to document a gap in the history of Napmap's work there. While National Mapping's geodetic survey of Australia is recognised as a great achievement, its survey of Papua New Guinea (PNG), however, undertaken with Army and PNG cooperation, is less well known. This detailed paper, based on the authors' recollections of the survey, provides an insight into the unique demands of this project from a personal perspective.

Natmap's Physical and Administrative Locations
During National Mapping's lifetime its staff were accommodated in many buildings and Natmap administered by many Federal Departments. This paper, which attempted to record all these details, has now undergone revision as more information has emerged.

Historical Locations connected with Lasseter's Grave, Petermann Ranges, Central Australia
Lewis Hubert Lasseter (1880-1931) later and more commonly Lewis Harold Bell Lasseter died a lonely death in the bush searching for a fortune in gold. This article by Paul Wise, does not repeat the Lasseter story or the search for his reef of gold, but is about reconciling various locations, from the literature, connected with the region and the Lasseter story. In doing so maps of the time from explorers and others are examined as many of the place or feature names relevant to the region and Lasseter, are spelt differently by different people and other place names are not depicted on modern maps or listed in gazetteers. WARNING : This article contains the names and images of deceased aboriginal persons.

Previously in What's New

Quicklinks

Available National Mapping Technical Reports and Special Publications.
The National Mapping Council of Australia (NMC) and the Division of National Mapping (Natmap).

Bibliography of the History of Australia's National Topographic Mapping Agencies by Dorothy Prescott, 2003.

Training Notes for National Mapping Field Survey Staff were compiled by Reginald Arthur Ford, Senior Technical Officer, while he was the Training Officer for the Melbourne Office. After many years of field experience, Reg documented most of the Nat Map Melbourne's accepted field survey procedures and methodologies covered by these notes. As such this document represents the consistent standard provided to and expected from all involved in field survey work during the late 1960s and 1970s. These notes were never published but just photocopied as required. This web version was derived from the personal copies provided by a number of Natmappers and their cooperation is appreciated. While every effort has been made to ensure correct conversion, users may find minor inconsistencies in the text and tables.

All editions of the NATMAP News.

Collected articles and papers about the USAF Southwest Pacific Survey, Project AF60-13 and its use of HIRAN.
A 25 minute (75MB download, MP4 file) 1961 USAF film on geodesy by Hiran can be viewed via this link. The film also has some interesting glimpses of various supporting technologies.

Editions of the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette or Government Gazette can now be searched via this link. For each year from 1901 to 1973 a comprehensive annual index was produced and is also accessible from the above link. However, after December 1973 the Public Service section of the Gazette was released as a separate volume. From 1974 onwards these Public Service Gazettes have not been digitised. Thus ready online access to staffing information for 1974 onwards is not available. Also from 1975 onwards comprehensive annual indexing of Gazette entries for all years ceased and for some years only quarterly indexing was provided.

Deceased content warning

This website may contain the images of deceased Aboriginal persons. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers should exercise care in viewing the content.

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