Warning Ent rant follows
------------------------------
It should be no secret that I am very critical of the state of maps in this state of Tasmania. The most annoying thing is the data exists but bureaucratic incompetence combined with a complete absence of commercial commonsense frustrates the provision of information that can be critical in avoiding unnecessary rescues such as being caught on the wrong side of a flooded creek. In fact this happen to our group on the weekend. No problem as we had an escape route thanks to local knowledge of a party member and mobile coverage to arrange a pickup plus a very pleasant private land owner that allowed passage over their private land so the rescue service were not troubled. This is what we always aim for as a plans B to Y and dare I suggest most on this site do likewise. To do this quality mapping data is needed.
Back in 2010 I wrote to Minister explaining the issues with TASMAP's approach and received a nice letter that largely agreed with me but stated that a new way forward was to be released in 2011 that would solve the problems. It is now 2013 and nothing has changed. It was pathetic that TASMAP after missing the promised deadline again and again decided to blame its incompetence on the bushfires that happen after it missed yet another deadline. Lucky for them, and not the bushfire that the people affected. Given the frequency of bushfires in Tasmania it appears that they are "safe" from doing anything constructive.
So I started the OSM project of Ent-World. In my research I found out that the contour lines that I use made freely available from NASA are from 90 metre levels coming from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM). Further research revealed that the 30 metre levels were also made and this data was made freely available to the USA population and after some delay plus public pressure the European public. But in Australia for "military" reason it was not. So anyone found with a ten metre contour map please turn yourself over to ASIO as a subversive
Anyway, I subsequently found that the "military security" reason was so absurd that even our Federal Government decided to drop this pretext but will only released free of charge the one second contours (30 metres) for selective areas (flood prone ones) and referred me to one of our many state departments. So off went another email this time to DPIPWE requesting the contour data as a private citizen for personal use. And now here is their reply.
Thanks for your email.
It is possible for you to obtain 10metre Contour data from us but unfortunately there is a cost associated with it.
we can customise the data to meet an area of interest for you, and this is prices accordingly.
Alternatively if you were to purchase a significant volume or a Statewide data set it is our current policy that personal-use clients be required to enter into a Data Licence Agreement. This is to protect the intellectual property within those products and to clearly define the terms and conditions associated with their use.
Cost for Statewide LIST 10 metre Contours is $1375.00 Inc GST
Data Format/Projection/Delivery
Shapefile, GDA94-MGA Zone55
Delivery via HTTP site, Link supplied for downloading.
If you wish to proceed and would like a quote for a specific Area of Interest (AOI), all that is required is bottom left and top right co-ordinates, or screen capture or similar.
Payment is preferred via credit card, detail can be taken over the phone or by email.
Please find attached LIST Contour Information.
Kind regards
Now let me apply some simple commercial logic to the above. A private individual for private use has to pay $1,350 for contour information that for Europe and the USA is free. Plus has to sign a contract that as one fellow member found spans numerous pages of legal hogwash. Or the same private individual can pay $99 to a commercial company for the the complete Tasmap coverage of 1:25,000, 1:100,000 plus street directory. Admittedly, with such poor scanning quality to be near useless in some areas, and in raster format meaning only suitable for high res smartphones rather than vector format suitable for the tough GPSs walkers are advise to take.
Now how many of you out there have taken OSM data, developed style and typ files to use mkgmap to develop maps for a Garmin device? Obviously there must be thousands of you doing this and paying the $1,350 plus hiring a team of lawyers to sift through a DPIPWE bureaucrat's contract. I would love to see the sales figures. Honestly, this is "Yes Minister" on LSD!
So we have a terminally incompetent department that is prepared to ridiculously price data that is freely available to the citizens of Europe and the USA in order to sell paper maps, many twenty if not thirty years out of date printed on paper that tears on first use. (Yes even TASMAP admit that their paper is junk.) Plus they do not even hold a complete set of paper maps but will for an undisclosed fee print using ink jet (water based ink?) on unknown paper quality maps out of print if you ask them nicely.
So my aim to improve the quality of contour data has stalled once again due to the Tasmanian Public Disservice inability to modernize nor apply commonsense. This issue will impact on how I vote as the Minister needs to act and jerk this bunch of bureaucrats into gear or maybe privatize the mapping of this state as the situation can not get much more ridiculous.
Sorry for the rant but unless the Minister acts this situation will continue on and on. And if you read in the paper someone firing off a PLB when you know that an escape route exist just blame DPIPWE as I am sure that their incompetence has not assisted the walkers.
Honestly is it that hard to
1. Provide the SRTM data on one second contours free of charge or at worst at a sensible price? Maybe even do the same for the 10 metre contours?
2. Provide TASMAP data in electronic vector format that can be converted into Garmin plus other major GPS formats?
3. Provide the most current data available electronically so when Parks re-routes as track this information is immediately available (such as route into Junction Lake)
4. Charge a sensible price to private individuals seeking the above information?
5. Dump the bureaucrat backside protecting legal hogwash that I am sure cost a fortune and kept many bureaucrats employed to eliminate any chance of sale of data?
6. Seek a third party printing arrangement where its customers can select a paper type and maps to be printed. Count the number of maps you need for the Western Arthurs as it sits from memory on the corners of four 1:25,000 maps. I am sure more than a few printing companies would be happy to provide this service.
Modern technology makes the above possible but instead we have the Lord Kitchener of Khartoum types incapable of modernizing their provision of services. Thank goodness we are not a war our else these incompetents would have us slowly walking into machine guns singing songs of praise to them and executing anyone for subversion that mentioned that this was stupid.
So end the rant.
Regards
"lt only took six years. From now on, l´ll write two letters a week instead of one."
(Shawshank Redemption)