Fresh look at Public Land information

25 August 2004

New interim Public Lands
of Australia map, showing
Canberra and SE coast of NSW
© Geoscience Australia

The various types of public land across Australia are shown at a scale of 1:5 million on a new interim, small scale, thematic map, Public Lands of Australia, produced by Geoscience Australia.

The map has been produced in response to requests from the public, government and industry to update the popular Land Tenure map (1993). Assembling information for the new map has been made possible thanks to the cooperation of a large number of authorities across Australia.

Approximately 75 percent of Australia's land tenure consists of private land. The remaining public land provides for:

• the management of public resources such as forests and minerals
• environmental protection of nature conservation reserves and water supply catchments
• land for defence activities, and
• reservations for special purposes such as communications, energy, transport and education.

Indigenous land is now largely private property and will form the basis of a new map to be produced at a later time.

Download the new interim digital map of Australia's public lands.

New outcrop geology of Northwest Queensland

16 August 2004

New outcrop geology
of southern Queensland
© Geoscience Australia

A new 1:1 million scale digital geological dataset of Northwest Queensland, western Cape York and Torres Strait, compiled by Geoscience Australia and including data from the Geological Survey of Queensland (GSQ) is now available for free download. The new dataset is the fourth instalment in a new national compilation of the Surface Geology of Australia at 1:1 million scale. Datasets for Tasmania, Victoria and southern Queensland are already available.

The new Queensland dataset covers the area from the Mount Isa Inlier, Murphy Tectonic Ridge, and eastern McArthur Basin, north to Torres Strait. The data set was compiled mainly from regional 1:500,000 scale maps but complemented with some second generation 1:250 000 scale geology. Cainozoic geology in the area of Mount Isa was subdivided using images of enhanced Landsat TM and gamma-ray spectrometric data. Xstrata Copper Exploration is gratefully acknowledged for providing access to gamma-ray spectrometric data coverage of the Mount Isa Inlier.

Download Surface Geology of Australia 1:1,000,000 scale data package.