Data

Here's a few data tables that might give you easier access to locations:

# Description Format Access Current Version
(Date/#of entries)		 Comment
1 ACT Oracle
ACT Oracle
ACT Oracle
ACT Oracle		 .wpt (OziExplorer waypoint file)
.txt (Text file)
.gpx (Ready to load into many Garmin GPS)
.kmz (Google Earth file)		 Public access 22-Feb-12 An attempt at an easily update-able list of locations. At the moment, these lists reflect all ACT walk locations of interest up to walk 570 (2017 locations). The format of each ACT Oracle.txt line (apart from line 1) is: WP,UTM,Location Name,UTM Zone,Easting,Northing,mm/dd/yyyy,hh:mm:ss,Description,A,N,altitude(-9999 if absent)
2 Weirs .wpt (OziExplorer waypoint file) Public access 11-Oct-11 The locations of 17 weirs. Visited locations are numbered 1-17. Locations containing 'KHA' are estimated locations; other locations are from CSIRO papers, which needed refining
3 ACT Hills .txt (Tab delimited) Public access 7-Aug-10/59 UTM location of the majority of ACT major hills
4 ACT Waterfalls
ACT Waterfalls		 .gpx
.txt (as exported from OziExplorer)		 Public access 7-Aug-10/16 UTM location of all Waterfalls visited
5 ACT Border Markers .xls Public access 13-Apr-12/827 UTM location of all Border Markers, Mile Markers and blazes visited. Those in NNP flagged
6 NNP European sites .xls Password protected 14-Mar-12/280 UTM location of all NNP European sites visited. For KHA research

I can provide Waypoint and Track data from any walk report in any format. Just email to ask. Better still, you can reverse-engineer the walk report .kmz files yourself, as described below

I'd really appreciate some feedback if anyone is using these - send me an email. Thanks.

What can you do with it?

Here's a few suggestions:

  1. Display on digital maps using OziExplorer and on Google Earth. Download an .xls; save the data to CSV (Comma delimited); remove the heading lines; insert line 1 containing "Datum,Australian Geocentric 1994 (GDA94)"; insert "WP,UTM," at beginning of each line of data; save as .txt; import into OziExplorer. View locations on digital map. Export to Google Earth. View locations in Google Earth.
  2. Display on digital maps using OziExplorer and on Google Earth. Open and save a .txt; import into OziExplorer using the Import Waypoints from Text file dialog to set up and format the data. View locations on digital map. Export to Google Earth. View locations in Google Earth.
  3. Load into your GPS. Click on a .gpx link. The XML is displayed in your browser.File/Save As..., then load the waypoints into your GPS (if it can handle .gpx format - if not, use GPSBabelGUI to convert).

Reverse-engineering .kmz Files

  1. Open the walk report .kmz file in Google Earth
  2. Select the component you want - the .kmz for combined track and waypoints; expand it and select just the track or just the waypoints
  3. File/Save/Save Place As.... Change the Save as type: to Kml (*.kml) in the Save file... dialog
  4. Open the saved .kml in GPSBabelGUI. Select Google Earth (Keyhole) Markup Language as the input format and point to the input file. Select the output format as desired - eg. OziExplorer, GPX XML. Name the output file. Select What - Waypoints or Tracks. Click let's go.

GPSBabel

GPSBabel is free software allowing the conversion of data between GPS systems and mapping programs. Download it from here. Run the install program, unchecking Create a desktop icon and Launch GPSBabelFE during the dialog panels. Take note of the comment "gpsbabel.exe is the standard command line version described in the help text. GPSBabelGUI.exe is a graphical wrapper that allows you to pick single files to read and write from menus". So I don't get confused, I remove the 'camp fire flame' icon from the Start/All Programs/GPSBabel, as this starts the command line version. I then create a shortcut (put it where you want to - Desktop, Quick Launch bar, Start/All Programs/GPSBabel) which executes the GUI.

See here for the data formats GPSBabel can handle.

GPSBabel and unicsv (Universal csv with field structure in first line) input

This looks very useful. See here for full documentation.

Try this - Create a text file containing the following 2 lines:

Name,UTM
Home sweet home,55 H 685274 6088288

Run it through GPSBabelGUI with 'Universal csv with field structure in first line' selected as the input format and your desired output format. Voila! See the full documentation for more sophisticated use.

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This page last updated 143Apr12