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Land Information Newsletter

November 2005

About this Newsletter

For the past three years the Land Information Division of the Department of Planning and Infrastructure (DPI – formerly DIPE) has conducted an on-line survey of its customers.  This Newsletter is a direct result of feedback that our customers want to know more about products and services being developed or changes to processes that may affect them.  It is intended to produce the Newsletter quarterly, and it will be distributed through our email lists as well as being posted on the DPI Web site.  Further feedback is invited through the email addresses, fax and telephone numbers listed below.

2005 Customer Survey

…  and while on the subject of the 2005 Survey, a further thank you to all respondents who provided comments, both good and bad.  We are already addressing the shortcomings identified and will keep you informed of progress through the Newsletter.

Land Information Web site

Following criticism from customers the content relating to Land Information Division has been completely revised and can be accessed at http://www.nt.gov.au/lands/lis/index.shtml

Similarly, the NTLIS Web site is also being revised and should be available during December.

2005-06 Topographic Mapping Program

This year DPI is mapping 30 towns and communities across the NT. These 30 projects were divided up into 5 work packages and put out to tender. In September DPI awarded 3 work packages to a local company, EKOS Research (NT). One package was also awarded to Survey Graphics from Perth and another Infotech Enterprises Limited from Melbourne. All mapping is expected to be completed prior to 30 April 2006 and once accepted the data will be available through the Land Information Centre.    Contact Tony Gill on 8999 7028 for information on progress.

Congratulations to NTLIS

Congratulations to the NT Land Information Systems team, who received a special commendation in the ‘enabling technology’ category at the NT Information Communication Technology Awards on 12 November.

The special commendation was awarded for the innovative use of technology behind the newly-launched Road Report website, which provides current information on the condition of urban, rural and remote Territory roads, an essential service for Territorians. The technology designed by NTLIS allows Roads staff to publish maps of affected roads within minutes of receiving the warning reports.

It is the first NT-built application to be based on the internationally-recognised OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) standards for accessing geographic information. The technology caught the eye of judges at the awards because it allows information from the NT Government’s mainframe and spatial data sources to be displayed live on the web site.

New Applications of Technology - Automated Mapping on Demand

DPI has successfully implemented the automated production of Administrative Map Booklets. The system has been built on an Oracle spatial database using FME scripts to produce a SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) document that is then converted to a multi-page PDF using RenderX software. A full street index is automatically compiled and included.  A map booklet of over 100 pages takes less than 30 minutes to generate directly out of the database as a PDF ready for printing and binding. A prototype version with an ortho-rectified imagery underlay has also been produced.

The process is now also being applied to other standard mapping products such as thematically styled tenure maps of suburbs, localities, towns & Hundreds. The mapping extents and marginalia information are driven by the spatial extents of the suburb/locality, being shown with an overview map dynamically generated based on the local government area that contains the suburb/locality.

This technique is to be applied to all standard maps and products that can be spatially identified, such as Pastoral Infrastructure maps based on the extent of the pastoral lease, SLAP (Serviced Land Availability Program) maps based on the extents of the community being mapped and NTG Topographic maps based on the sheet/scale extents.

DPI will now investigate how this facility can be made available as a production type service within and potentially outside the Department.  Further information from Tony Gill on 8999 70278.

NT Topographic & Imagery Information Working Group

In September 2005 the NT Topographic and Imagery Information Working Group (TIIWG) was formed as part of the Northern Territory Land Information System (NTLIS).

The working group:

  • Represents the topographic and imagery information requirements of NTG agencies
  • Recommends to the NTLIS coordination body for endorsement, a rolling forward data capture and maintenance program for the NT’s lead mapping agency (1:25,000 and below).
  • Provides input to external mapping agencies, such as Commonwealth and Defence agencies, as to the NT’s requirements at smaller scales (i.e. 1:50,000 and above)
  • Approves the Product Specifications of corporate data sets related to topographic and imagery information maintained by the NT’s lead mapping agency (DPI).
  • Provides input to the NT’s member of the Inter-governmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping’s Permanent Committee on Topographic Information (ICSM-PCTI) to ensure that the NT is well represented at the National level.

The group has representatives from NT Police Fire & Emergency Services (NTPFES), Dept. of Natural Resources, Environment & the Arts (DNRETA), Dept. of Primary Industry, Fisheries & Mines (DPIFM) and Dept. of Planning & Infrastructure (DPI).  Andy Roberts of DPI’s Alice Springs office represents Central Australian users of topographic information.

Joint Commonwealth / Northern Territory Workshop

On October 11 2005 Land Information hosted a Joint Geoscience Australia / Northern Territory Workshop under the auspices of the National Topographic Information Coordination Initiative that was recently endorsed by ICSM/ANZLIC.  Details of the NTICI can be found on the ICSM website at http://www.icsm.gov.au/icsm/topo/ntici_june_2005.pdf

Attended by Geoscience Australia, DPI, DNRETA and DPIFM, the objective of the workshop was to identify common priorities and opportunities with the intent of starting significant joint project(s) this financial year. These will not only provide new data and information products at large scales for internal government use, but also provide the basis for developing a long-term joint mapping strategy between Geoscience Australia and the Northern Territory Government.

A priority area that has been identified is the updating of between 6-10 1:100,000 scale topographic map sheets over the MacDonnell Ranges in the Alice Springs region.  Further information from Tony Gill on 8999 7028.

Guidelines for Unit Developments

In February 2005 the roles of various government agencies with respect to the administration and management of issuing land title for Unit developments were modified.   In most cases, this “organisational change” has had minimal impact on land developers.  However, new internal processes between the government agencies involved has highlighted operational shortcomings and the need for relevant aspects of the Unit Title Act and other related legislation to be amended.  It is evident that guidelines are needed to clarify the process, verify roles and responsibilities and reflect the practical workings of unit titling for both government and external users.

A draft report on the current unit titling process has been prepared as a basis for documenting guidelines that can be:

  • distributed to potential land developers, surveyors and other stakeholders involved with unit titling who require general unit titling information; and
  • used to assist government agencies to develop quality procedures when dealing with unit title matters.

For further information contact Rob Sarib on 8999 6081.

ILIS Road Show – Early 2006

Early next year Alice Springs, Katherine and Darwin users of ILIS will be invited to attend an introduction to the new ILIS Interface. Demonstrations will be available to most users of ILIS with special sessions being allocated for Land Titles Office clients, non-government agencies, government agencies and internal staff.

Information sessions are being developed to promote the new interface which will be in production in the new  year, with explanation of new features and functions.  These include self-maintenance of passwords, new layout, ability to use Internet Explorer navigation buttons (back/forward) and better navigation between modules.

Movies are being developed using a software product called Camtasia, with supporting PowerPoint presentations, and it is envisaged that these will become part of the Help function within ILIS.  Further information from Matthew Winston on 8924 4215.

Place Names News

Everyone uses Place Names in their daily life, but have you ever wondered how a place got its name?

The Place Names Unit, in conjunction with NTLIS, has over the past year developed a Web Feature Server (WFS) database, known as the Place Names Register (the Register). The Register records information on official place names in the Northern Territory, such as the origin of the name, when it was named, where it is located, and is available over the Internet.

The Place Names Amendment Act commenced on 7 September 2005 and has broadened the definition of what can be named under the Act to include virtually any place that is not named under another piece of NT legislation. The name of a place now becomes official when the name is added to the Register and Gazettal is now used only as means of advising people that a particular place has been named.

The Place Names website has been revamped to cater for the new changes to the Act with more information on the Place Names Committee, place naming processes in the NT and a link to the Register. For developers and those interested in recently completed subdivisions, a web page is dedicated to recent additions to the Register.  For further information call Stuart Duncan on 8999 6444 – or sign on to http://www.nt.gov.au/lands/lis/placenames/index.shtml

Progress Reports

Data capture for an On-line Survey Plan Index is continuing with a target date for release of March 2006 (Mike Roberts 8999 7210).

The new version of the NT Atlas has been completed and will be made available during December 2005 following re-linking to the Australian Coastal Atlas site (Ivan Price 8924 4024). 

The NT Spatial Data Directory has also been redeveloped and can be accessed directly from the NT Atlas.  This should also be available during December subject to linking to the national directory (ASDD) and updating of metadata information by responsible custodians (Rachel Macrae 8924 4129). 

For those within government waiting for access to the Keyhole Access and Visualisation Service, the good news is that the latest version of the Google/Keyhole software will finally be released at the end of November and an engineer is expected to arrive from the USA on 12 December to load, configure and provide training.  The production environment is expected to be available February 2006, though in the interim the test environment continues to be available for authorised users.