Map Patrol

Map Patrol was dreamt up by the Australian company Hema Maps in the late 1990s.

This small team criss-crosses the continent, racking up 100,000 kilometres a year to record each and every road.

It’s the kind of thorough mapping that’s needed more than ever, as an increasing number of Australians get lost and bogged due to our reliance on mobile phone apps, such as Google Maps.

The global mapping systems have patchy coverage of regional areas, and often don’t function out bush due to the lack of phone range

The Map Patrol team uses special Hema navigation mapping software mounted to the dashboard, that records a GPS location every 5 metres.  “It’s dropping breadcrumbs along this track, and they’ll all being connected up to show one line,” explained Rhys Holmes.  “It’s giving us a latitude and longitude and elevation, so for simple map geometry it’s a simple X, Y and Z.”

The team also enters detailed information about the track condition, hazards, camping facilities and points of interest that will be fed into Hema’s online products and detailed guidebooks.

Read the full ABC News Story here:  Map Patrol

For inspiration check out:  Get Outdoors – Outdoors Queensland