5 April 2006

Canberra Google Earth Data

| Thomahawk
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After much fruitless Googling, for lack of anyone else to ask I wonder if the RiotACT readership knows of a site that collates Canberra-related Google Earth data.

I’m thinking of a user-created database of sites such as schools, hospitals, gig venues, bus stops, tourist sites, curiosities/places of interest, defence sites etc etc. Some of this info is on the Google Earth Communities layer, but it’s hardly comprehenise. I also think it would be good to have a “what’s this structure” question forum – I’m thinking of things like that spooky Defence building next to the airport and a couple of odd-looking areas on O’Connor Ridge.

If there’s enough interest, and there isn’t one already, I might start one myself. It could possibly be started by labelling the buildings at the ANU, for example, or the locations of the Pubs in Civic.

Of course, even if there was no centralised database, we could just start a Canberra thread on the Google Earth Communities forum. I’d be interested, at least. What are your thoughts, fellow curious Canberrans?

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ACT Locate
web site may be of interest. It is a sort of GoogleEarth for the ACT which includes lots of planning information.

Still working on the infrastructure file, it will be pretty comprehensive including water, electricity and communications. To answer the questions so far, the two “tennis courts” on O’Connor Ridge are O’Connor and Aranda Reservoirs, and the “shed” to the right of the Mt Ainslie Access road is Campbell Reservoir. The sheds just below that belong to the handgun range.

I noticed a big shed on Mt Ainslie a while back, but it was behind Duffy St, not near the access road. I think it has something to do with electricity supply.

BTW, does anyone know what the big silver shed thingy is on mount Ainslie? (Its just near the access road on the way up).

Les, I would definitely be interested in the utility .kmz. Does it explain what those odd tennis-court looking things are on O’Connor Ridge (longitude 149.1019230472629, latitude -35.25582924515992)? Are they water tanks of some form? They’re kinda near my house, I might just go for a walk on the weekend and find out.

And TAD, take a look at Civic, there’s so much parking there, and Mooseheads is still a burned-out wreck in the photo (=

The map must be a couple of years old. My air conditioner isn’t on my house’s roof.

I’ve started compiling a list of ACT utility infrastructure. If anyone is interested once it is complete I would be glad to host/post the .kmz

ForRetailTherapy12:13 pm 05 Apr 06

You want to see bus stops? Well, heres one. Weston Creek terminus (termini for route 26), also stopped at by route 28. Right in the mdidle of nowhere:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=canberra,+australia&ll=-35.343909,149.02791&spn=0.002144,0.005364&t=k
(I don’t have access to install Google Earth so I use the WWW site)

And also (not aerial), Up close of that bus stop: http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/cdview?pi=nla.int-nl39138a-dmc447&referercode=pa

Another use for the venerable RA server JB ?

Might be useful to host so you can ask for your server back (international committments) when the Feds impound it under the new terror legislation etc…

Kind of like getting done DUI and then getting a drivers licence for work purposes…

it could be lots of different user-uploaded .kmz files (ie. one for schools, one for pubs, etc. – they’re only around 12k each), but ideally a server could be set up that is updated & distributed live to any subscribers. I know this is very possible, but don’t know how easy it is to set up. Maybe I should have waited until the weekend when I’ll have time to dick around with it…

what would we need to do to host this data if no-one else wants a piece of it?

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