[talk-au] Suburbs in Australia

[Darren Burt]

This is *exactly* what was referred to in my original email included below.

*The 'official' centroid location is the middle of residential nowhere 
for West Pymble.*

I fear this is the same when you search for Mildura in Victoria per the 
article that I had linked to below.

Regards
Darren
On 20/12/12 21:49, Christopher Barham wrote:
> Ref West Pymble location, it's fairly simple to check for the 
> 'official' centroid location of the suburb here:
> http://www.ga.gov.au/place-names/PlaceDetails.jsp?fctext=RESV&fctext=SUB&submit1=NSW73064 
>
>
> They have it at -33.7568, 151.129
>
> On Thu, 20 Dec 2012 21:29:47 +1100, Darren Burt wrote:
>> I've been editing around the area, and noticed that the location of
>> the [suburb][1] is not what I would have called a reference to West
>> Pymble. I would have called West Pymble the shopping centre located
>> [here][2].
>>
>>   [1]:
>>
>> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-33.756665&lon=151.128885&zoom=18&layers=M 
>>
>>   [2]:
>>
>> http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-33.761018&lon=151.128327&zoom=18&layers=M 
>>
>
>
>
Hi

I wrote a long question at OSm help and they referred me to you guys. 
Hope you can help me help OSM.
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Hi

I've been editing around the area, and noticed that the location of the 
[suburb][1] is not what I would have called a reference to West Pymble. 
I would have called West Pymble the shopping centre located [here][2]. I 
note the following with respect to Sydney:

a) Cities. There are few 'cities' in comparison, to , eg California, 
where I would have compared many cities to be 'suburbs'. It's probably a 
population thing. There seems to be a trend towards more cities, (eg 
Sydney, Parramatta, Bankstown, Penrith etc) but in general usage, most 
places are referred to principally as 'suburbs'.

b) Towns in general are referring to country centres. If I 'went to 
town' in Sydney, I would be going to Sydney City centre, eg Town Hall 
station. This is in contrast, eg to the UK, where many of the places I 
would have referred to as suburbs were referred to as towns.

These are probably a historical growth thing. Sydney has generally 
expanded organically from a central point.

c) As a general definition, if somebody referred to just the suburb, 
they would refer to the principal activity centre of that area. In most 
cases that is the main shopping or commercial area. Sometimes it might 
be a train station. Sometimes something else. But if you drive to the 
West Pymble located above, you are in the middle of a residential area. 
And here's where things extrapolate.

**IMPORTANT**
Please refer to this recent article about [Apple Maps in Australia][3]. 
My West Pymble example is trivial. However, in Australia is not just a 
matter of inconvenience.

I'd welcome any other Aussies kicking in their opinions as well. As I 
said, my example is trivial, but it could turn wickedly wrong on some of 
the cattle stations that are [24000 square kms][4] (6m acres). Centre of 
that (geographically) could see you 100s or 1000s of kms away from help, 
and be life or death.

I went looking at the definition of suburb and [found][5] that it refers 
to the 'centre of the suburb'. It is not clear if this is meant to be 
the geographic centre or some other type of centre. This need 
clarification.

Look. I'm new to this editing and everything. I am hoping to get some 
clarification on this to help with not just this suburb, but to provide 
valuable guidance for other suburbs as well. I would request an update 
to the wiki as well to help clarify this.

Appreciate your help.


   [1]: 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-33.756665&lon=151.128885&zoom=18&layers=M 

   [2]: 
http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=-33.761018&lon=151.128327&zoom=18&layers=M 

   [3]: http://www.geekosystem.com/apple-maps-australia/
   [4]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Creek_station
   [5]: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Suburb

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