[OSM-talk] Map Co-ordinates for towns, etc in UK
mick
bareman at tpg.com.au
Sat Mar 3 23:54:24 GMT 2012
On Sat, 03 Mar 2012 08:15:00 -0600
"John F. Eldredge" <john at jfeldredge.com> wrote:
> mick <bareman at tpg.com.au> wrote:
>
> >
> > My original interest was if there was a specific point that said 'this
> > is Sometown', where distances to adjacent towns were measured from,
> > similar to the Australian convention where the "Zero Point" was set along
> > the roadside, at the Post Office which was usually next door to or
> > across the road from a 'coaching inn'.
> >
> > This point rarely had anything to do with the geographic centre of
> > town but served only as a survey benchmark.
> >
> > As Phillip, yourself and a few other people have pointed out these
> > points have little remaining relevance in current times, especially
> > for routing.
> >
> > The only place where I've found this concept still in use is
> > Queensland Rail's Brisbane suburban network, where the track at
> > stations is marked with the distance to Central Station and the
> > markings are maintained.
> >
> > mick
> >
>
> Here in the USA, highways commonly have signs stating the distance to the next major town. Are such distance signs no longer used in Australia?
>
Prior to metric conversion in 1976 Australia used white concrete posts about 1 yard tall with town initials & distances each way as in http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Milestone_Batemans_Bay_NSW_18.JPG/90px-Milestone_Batemans_Bay_NSW_18.JPG
After conversion they were replaced with "International Standard" metal shields on an 8ft metal post every 5KM. With the change they no longer marked the "Zero Point".
mick
More information about the talk
mailing list