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 preserved as part of the PANDORA archive.

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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.

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What's New

As of 20 August 2019

• Nat Map's Name on a Postage Stamp
  On 20 August 2019, Australia Post released a four stamp set Mapping the Australian Antarctic Territory, in which the $2 stamp has part of a 1971 Nat Map map and is described as such.

   (Click here to view full stamp.)

  Due to copright restrictions the full stamp set cannot be shown but the set may be viewed via this link. Further details are also available on page 18 of the Stamp Bulletin, Issue 360 of July-August 2019 at this link. 

• NMF 206 on Mount Ford, Western Australia, July 2019. Mount Ford was named in honour of National Mapping's Reginald Arthur (Reg) Ford who on 1 January 1968 was awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) (BEM-(C)) for meritorious service (for his national mapping effort; particularly to the national geodetic survey).

• John Robert Woodger (1936-2009)
  Woody was a technical officer with National Mapping and the later Australian Surveying and Land Information Group from 1966 to 1999. John was a man of many talents who was highly respected as a diligent and hard working technical officer and a good mate and as an ultra-reliable salt of the earth honest man. John worked with Nat Map in the field on levelling surveys with the Geodetic Levelling Section and later at the Mount Stromlo and the Orroral Observatories when he was engaged in photographic zenith tube operations, national time keeping and laser ranging activities. In this article Laurie McLean provides a biological sketch of John Woodger drawing on information provided by several of John's Nat Map colleagues.
• Peter Hugh Clemence (1925-2019)
  Peter Clemence flew Hughes 500 helicopters in support of Nat Map's Aerodist ground marking and measuring operations in 1969, 1970, 1972 and 1974. During that period he was chief pilot with the Moorabbin-based Jayrow Helicopters Pty Ltd. Peter also supported surveying operation on Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions; initially with fixed-wing aircraft in 1956-1957 and later with Jayrow Helicopters between 1969-70 and 1974 1975. Natmapper Laurie McLean flew with Peter Clemence during each of the years Peter was engaged in supporting Nat Map's Aerodist operations. In this article Laurie provides a brief overview of Peter Clemence.
• National Mapping's Airborne Terrain Profiling Program, 1962-1982
  To produce the contoured 1: 100,000 scale topographic maps from aerial photography, height or vertical control was required. National Mapping found that known ground based methods proved to be too slow or unsuitable for Australian conditions. An airborne solution was thus sought. The Laser Years : Recollecting Airborne Terrain Profiling for Photogrammetric Vertical Control in the Division of National Mapping, 1962-1982, by Paul Wise, provides the most detailed account of the Division of National Mapping's, airborne terrain profiling program. It was this program that generated profiles of the terrain from which the location and height of selected points were extracted, enabling Nat Map's vertical control requirements to be met.
• George Robert Lindsay Rimington (1908-1992)
  In 1929, at the age of 21 years Lindsay Rimington was registered as a licensed surveyor in Victoria. Rim as he was often called within Nat Map became one of National Mapping's early leaders. He started Nat Map's Melbourne in 1948 and led it until moving to Canberra as assistant director in 1962. In this article Laurie McLean takes a detailed look at Lindsay Rimington's life and his significant contribution to the mapping of Australia.
• Natmap's supervising surveyor Bill Johnson arrived at Billiluna Homestead in October 1962, having just completed the reconnaissance of the Canning Stock Route (CSR), from Wells 35 to 51, of the Well 35 to Halls Creek traverse section of the national geodetic survey. For the geodetic survey parties to later access the northern CSR to carry out the survey, Johnson arranged a contract for Mr Bill Moyle of Carranya Station to undertake the scraping of the new track to Well 51 and to then continue with further track work southwards to Well 45. The unofficially named Moyle's Track ran from the vicinity of Old Billiluna to Well 45, bypassing Wells 47 and 46 to the east. Topographic maps of the era also show a location named Old Billiluna (ruins). Historically Billiluna took its name from a large water hole recorded as Billiluna Pool by Alfred Wernam Canning around 1910 and which is some distance from the other locations named Billiluna. This article The Historical Locations of Billiluna Homestead in the Kimberley Region of Western Australia by Paul Wise, details the history, people and land tenure behind these sites of Billiluna Homestead, providing an approximate timeline and sequence of occupation.

Previously in What's New

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Go to ...

• 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.




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Related Sites

| National Topographic Mapping | Geodesy | Satellite Imagery |
| Antarctica |
| The Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) | The Mapping Sciences Institute |

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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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