[talk-au] Map errors in regional Victoria

[Brett Henderson]

That is quite possible.  Maps show the area as being Mitchellstown which 
as far as I can tell doesn't exist on the ground.  The Blunt Street that 
does exist is a strange name given that it is farmland.  Checking the 
land channel maps (http://services.land.vic.gov.au/maps/interactive.jsp) 
shows small block subdivisions in the area of the real Blunt Street 
which are now totally covered in a single large vine plantation.  The 
main area with the fake Blunt Streets doesn't show any subdivisions but 
perhaps they were at some point in the past.

Is anybody aware of any out of copyright maps for Victoria?  For the 
town I grew up (Tylden in the central highlands) I know my parents have 
some old maps that show the original subdivisions in the area from over 
100 years ago including all property boundaries.  Tylden itself has 
followed that original plan quite closely.

Andrew Loughhead wrote:
> My guess is that a cadastral map would show some of the winery tracks as
> being road easements, which have not been utilised for roads by the
> local council as yet.  As easements the land manager gets to use the
> land, but could potentially lose them should the council decide to
> construct those roads.  So it would make sense for the land manager to
> use those easements where possible for its own tracks, rather than, say,
> investing in vines which they could lose with no compensation.
>
> In the Canberra area there are some examples of easements being marked
> as existing roads.  Monash Drive is marked on Google [1] for example,
> but is unlikely to ever be built.  Local Live [2] shows the same road. 
> Presumably both sites have bought the same source data, complete with
> free errors!  The vendor of that data has likely based their road data
> in part on easements marked on the cadastre, rather than on the real
> world. 
>
> Sometimes these easements have a long history. Where my father lives
> south of Hobart there are road easements which go straight up hillsides
> which are close to being cliffs, and existing roads which needlessly go
> straight up steep hills.  Apparently those easements in the cadastre
> were drawn up in the UK based on limited or no topographic data, early
> in the period of British settlement. 
>
> [1]
> http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=hackett,+ACT,+australia&ie=UTF8&ll=-35.249615,149.163609&spn=0.031192,0.080338&z=14&iwloc=addr&om=1
> [2]
> http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=-35.254311~149.168115&style=r&lvl=14&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&encType=1
> <http://local.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&cp=-35.254311%7E149.168115&style=r&lvl=14&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&encType=1