Thread: Tracks4Australia

Hi Jon, try .:GPS Australia:. for information and other options

I can't give too much advise on mapping software except to say most of it doesn't cover where I live to any great detail.

Hi Yorkshire Jon (great name BTW, I'm Jon and I'm from Yorkshire originally!)

I have both Tracks4Australia and ShonkyMaps installed on my carputer, you can freely switch between the different maps in MapSource.

I find that ShonkyMaps has a little bit more detail than Tracks4 of the places I 4WD on over here in WA, however to be honest they are both based on government maps that are many years old (like 20) and in some instances from a 1972 survey! They have very little detail of the smaller tracks and it's impossible to distinguish between a right of way and a private track / road. For example a road is shown just near to where I live, and yet it is on private land with padlocked gates at each end of it.

I'm still learning how to get hold of decent digital maps of WA, without resorting to scanning paper copies of the DLA & CALM (land management) maps and using OziExplorer which I don't particularly rate. I've found that Google Earth with the "roads" layer turned on is pretty useful for pre-trip planning as it shows loads of detail of the smaller tracks - Google maps gives the same results. Unfortunately this is of no use when you are in the car!

I've noticed that the Magellen maps of Australia seem to use the same source as Google maps and has nearly all of the small tracks in it, being a tight Yorkshire git though I refuse to spend $1200 on a GPS just to get their maps! I've also found no way of converting their maps to run on anything other than their GPS / PC software (which I guess is fair enough)!

Unless I'm missing something significant, it seems to me that decent (i.e. current and at least 1:25000 scale) ) digital maps of WA are virtually non-existent, I believe the mapping is better in some of the other States & Territories. WA is a very big place, so it is understandable - although I still find it pretty poor that the mapping provided by the government is still very poor even close to the major population areas (like Perth).

Private companies (like Hema) have capitalised on the pi$$ poor official mapping of the country and produced accurate maps of popular routes like the Canning Stock Route, etc.

Hope this helps, although I think it turned into a bit of a rant

Jon

EDIT...

I went on a fresh search and wonder if OzTopo V2 is any good, <click here> I notice in their FAQ that they get their road & POI data from MapData Sciences Pty Ltd, who's name appears at the bottom of the viewing screen in Google Earth when looking at Australia. Does anyone have this product and is it any good (i.e. more detail of tracks than Shonky / Tracks4)??

Cheers Jon

Originally Posted by D3Jon

I went on a fresh search and wonder if OzTopo V2 is any good, <click here> I notice in their FAQ that they get their road & POI data from MapData Sciences Pty Ltd, who's name appears at the bottom of the viewing screen in Google Earth when looking at Australia. Does anyone have this product and is it any good (i.e. more detail of tracks than Shonky / Tracks4)??

Cheers Jon

I'm actually waiting until I can see that, as it looks promising but I don't want to find I have a $200 lemon that is no better than the free ones.

I went on a fresh search and wonder if OzTopo V2 is any good, <click here> I notice in their FAQ that they get their road & POI data from MapData Sciences Pty Ltd, who's name appears at the bottom of the viewing screen in Google Earth when looking at Australia. Does anyone have this product and is it any good (i.e. more detail of tracks than Shonky / Tracks4)??

I think you might find this is a combination of 2 products - GPS TopoPlus which is 10m contour data for Australia and Tracks4Australia Pro which is the commercial version of Tracks4. So far I've found Tracks4Australia to be semi-useful - as it's based on GPS tracks submitted by users it's only as good as their data.

Personally I still don't understand why more map products are not available digitally but that's probably the modern way - wait till someone produces it commercially, which in a relatively small market like Oz could be a while

cheers, Andy

PS another exiled Yorkshireman

I looked at these maps when I first got my GPS but found Shonkymaps to be better.

Shonkymaps by Shonkylogic

...and they're freeware

I ise tracks4australia and shonkymaps depending on what i'm doing.

If i'm road touring, I load on the shonkymaps, if I'm off roading, tracks4australia.

I would like tracks4australiapro, but I'm not about to cough up for it. I also have a topo overlay to go with tracks4australia. it's available freely as well if you check out GPS australia

Originally Posted by jik22

I'm actually waiting until I can see that, as it looks promising but I don't want to find I have a $200 lemon that is no better than the free ones.

That's my feelings exactly.

Originally Posted by AndyRevill

I think you might find this is a combination of 2 products - GPS TopoPlus which is 10m contour data for Australia and Tracks4Australia Pro which is the commercial version of Tracks4. <snip>

I wondered if V2 of oztopo had moved a way from the Tracks4Australia Pro data, and was now much more detailed because it used the roads & tracks data from MapData Sciences (the guys who supply Google Earth with their almost un-surpassed roads & tracks data and possibly also Magellan?).

Jon

This is a reverse question.... I have a garmin e-trex colour and am wondering what are best UK - Scotland especially - downloadable maps to put on my hand held?? Will be there in a month.