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 1 May 2019

• Order of Australia Awards January 2019.
  In the Order of Australia Honours announced on 26 January 2019, former Nat Map senior surveyor Peter Langhorne was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to Parliament and to politics. Peter's award citation included service as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister John Howard in 2007 and service to the National Party at state and national level. Peter's full award citation may be read on the Governor General's website.
  Peter Langhorne worked with Nat Map's Melbourne office Geodetic Survey Branch from 1966 to 1969 and returned in 1972 to head the Aerodist section as senior surveyor of the Aerodist Airborne Horizontal Control Section. He moved to Canberra in 1977 as an executive surveyor and took up an executive postion with the Department of Natural Resources in 1979.
  Also in the Order of Australia Honours announced on 26 January 2019, former helicopter pilot Harvey Else of Cundletown NSW was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to the aviation industry and to the community of Taree. Harvey's award citation included service to the Division of National Mapping in 1968 and 1971; service to Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions; and service as helicopter pilot for the filming of Mad Max II in 1981. Harvey's full award citation may be read on the Governor General's website.
  Harvey Else flew helicopters from the Sydney-based Helicopter Utilities Pty Ltd in support of Nat Map's Aerodist ground marking and measuring operations in 1968 and Aerodist measuring operations in 1971. Now in his early 90s, Harvey recently published his 600 page autobiography Helicopter Pilot: on the edge; further details of which may be found via this link.
• 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 office 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.
• The Empire, a former Sydney newspaper, published on its page 3 of Wednesday 2 September 1857, a lecture on Land Surveying given by then Australia's first Governor General, Sir William Denison. Denison described Geodesy, Geometry, Geography and Trigonometry as used by the surveyor to map out or divide the surface of the earth into portions of different sizes to suit the wants of its inhabitants. He also talked about the evil of the system whereby the expedient allocation of land lasts way beyond the need for such a temporary measure and thus results in the likelihood that the same piece of land be allocated to two, or even more, people and the ultimate recourse to litigation to resolve the problem.
• 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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