[talk-au] Tagging towns by relative importance, not just population size

[Warin]

On 28/9/23 20:31, Michael Collinson wrote:
> On 28/09/2023 11:18, Andrew Davidson wrote:
>> On 28/9/23 08:21, cleary wrote:
>>
>>> Windorah Qld and Ivanhoe NSW are both currently shown as "town" in 
>>> OSM but neither has more than rudimentary health service (if any), a 
>>> hotel, small primary school and service station. I couldn't buy a 
>>> coffee in either place last time I visited. 
>>
>> That is the general problem, most people want to inflate the 
>> importance of a place so that it renders. Windorah has a population 
>> of 76 and Ivanhoe 202. If it's lucky Ivanhoe might rate a village but 
>> Windorah is most firmly in the hamlet class.
>>
> Perhaps this apocryphal Ireland solution should be used? :-)
>
> A house - building
>
> A house and a church - hamlet
>
> A house, a church and a pub - village
>
> A house, a church and two pubs - town
>
>

In olden times Australia rated places by the number of pubs. I still do, 
3 or less pubs and I am comfortable security wise. More than 3 pubs and 
I take care to lock stuff up. Most communities will try to hold on to 
their last pub, once it is gone the community tends to die off too.

I did meet some English 4WD world travelers that had a world map. In the 
north west corner of Australia was Carnegie on that map .. it is a 
cattle station, has fuel and might do some food if you ask. It is a fair 
way to the next places with fuel. It was on their map so they went. Such 
is the power of 'filling in the blank spaces'.