data.gov.au » Spatial Data

Atlas of Australian Soils

csiro1 — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 04:14:55 +0000

The Atlas of Australian Soils (Northcote et al, 1960-68) was compiled by CSIRO in the 1960′s to provide a consistent national description of Australia’s soils. It comprises a series of ten maps and associated explanatory notes, compiled by K.H. Northcote and others. The maps are published at a scale of 1:2,000,000, but the original compilation was at scales from 1:250,000 to 1:500,000.

Mapped units in the Atlas are soil landscapes, usually comprising a number of soil types. The explanatory notes include descriptions of soils landscapes and component soils. Soil classification for the Atlas is based on the Factual Key.

The Factual Key (Northcote 1979) was the most widely used soil classification scheme prior to the Australian Soil Classification (Isbell 2002). It dates from 1960 and was essentially based on a set of about 500 profiles largely from south-eastern Australia. It is an hierarchical scheme with 5 levels, the most detailed of which is the principal profile form (PPF). Most of the keying attributes are physical soil characteristics, and can be determined in the field.

Digital atlas of Australian Soils

In 1991, a digital version of the Atlas was created by the Bureau of Rural Science from scanned tracings of the published hardcopy maps. The Digital Atlas of Australian Soils is available as a shapefile. Additionally, there is a reliability map available, with a descriptive legend. The source of the reliability data is unknown.

Metadata

Metadata is provided in the ANZLIC2.0 metadata standard, as a Microsoft Word document. Reports and caveats specific to interpretations are contained within the relevant data downloads.

Interpretations, Reports and look-up tables

Interpretations of the mapping units have led to the development of look-up tables for the atlas. It is important to note the many caveats attached to these. Tables are supplied as ascii, comma delimited. Care must be taken when joining/linking the tables to the data, due to the use of mixed case in mapping unit names. Microsoft Access can not discern the difference between “m” and “M”. ESRI software (originally written for UNIX) is able to do this match via the join utility.

1. PPF interpretations (McKenzie and Hook, 1992)

2. Australian Soil Classification mapping (Ashton and McKenzie, 2001)

3. PPF interpretations (McKenzie et al, 2000)

Data sets, interpretations and meta-data are available for download through the Australian Soil Resource Information System ASRIS – see http://www.asris.csiro.au/themes/Atlas.html

Victorian Public Library Branches (State Library of Victoria)

statelibraryvictoria1 — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 02:41:39 +0000

This dataset features 266 public library branches in Victoria. The dataset includes the public library branch name, address and phone number details. This does not include library service details.

Integrated Marine and Coastal Regionalisation of Australia (IMCRA) v4.0 – Meso-scale Bioregions

datagovau — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:29:49 +0000

An inshore regionalisation of Australian waters derived from biological and physical data, including the distribution of demersal fishes, marine plants and invertebrates, sea floor geomorphology and sediments, and oceanographic data.

Commonwealth Marine Protected Areas Managed by DSEWPaC

datagovau — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:25:32 +0000

The data contains spatial and contextual information about Commonwealth Marine Protected Areas (MPA’s) under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth governments Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, which are managed by the Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC).

Murray-Darling Basin Boundary – Water Act 2007

datagovau — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:17:18 +0000

The boundary of the Murray-Darling Basin as defined in Section 4 (1) of the Water Act 2007. The boundary was derived from the dataset that is titled “Australia’s River Basins 1997″ and is dated 30 June 1997.

Australia, World Heritage Areas

datagovau — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 06:14:23 +0000

Australia properties on the World heritage list.