Abstract for presentation at Spatial Sciences Institute International Biennial Conference

Spatial Information Infrastructure (SII) of the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE)in Victoria is responsible for the printing of topographic maps for the State of Victoria. There are approximately 850 1:25 000 and 1:50 000 hardcopy topographic map sheets printed and made available for sale to the general public. These map sheets cover 80% of Victoria.
There are two fundamental concerns with these map sheets. Firstly, as of June 2006, only three map sheets were available to the general public utilising the new GDA 94 datum. All the remaining sheets utilise the now obsolete AGD66 datum.
Secondly, the age of the map sheets is of concern, with 40% of these map sheets being 21 to 30 years old, 50% are 11 to 20 years old and only 10% are less than 10 years old.
In addition map stocks are running low. Ten map sheets are completely out of stock and it is anticipated that approximately 20 map sheets will run out of stock by June 2007. It is forecast that 30 to 40 map sheets will run out of stock every 12 months.
In order to resolve these issues SII have begun a new hardcopy mapping program which will look at the complete replacement of old hardcopy topographic mapping stock by June 2008. This ambitious project utilizes an automatic mapping system, which dynamically accesses the most currently available Victorian data and generates high end cartographic mapping products in a cost effective manner.
By September 2006, at the time of writing of this abstract, the first fifteen new 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 topographic maps have been made available to the general public.