Australian Mapping Community

Overview

There is large, active, and passionate community of contributors that provide have been improving the map of Australia since the beginning of the OpenStreetMap project.

Throughout the evolution of OSM, there have been many different communication channels, platforms, and forums that have been used by the Australian mapping community to coordinate and make the map better.

New contributors are always welcome! Don't be shy: find your preferred communication channel and jump in!

Social Channels

Local Channels

Name	Description	Relative Activity
OSM Australian mailing list	One of the oldest, and most historically active communication channel. The list is a great way to find out information and communicate with other working people, and the discussions there have been the historical basis for much of the Australian Tagging Guidelines. The archives can be searched at https://www.mail-archive.com/talk-au@openstreetmap.org/	Very Active
OpenStreetMap World Discord #oceania	There is a growing number of members who are using Discord for real-time discussion and collaboration. Anyone is welcome to join and participate; Discord is a great tool for real-time "how do I tag this" conversations, rather than reaching out to the mailing list anytime there is confusion, as well as containing other conversation. Once joining Discord to see the #oceania channel you must visit the #rules-and-roles channel and under "Choose the flag of your region for your user role." choose the Australian flag, after which you should see the #oceania channel.	Very Active
Maptime Oceania Slack. (Matrix bridge)	Another real-time communication channel. Once accepted make sure to join your relevant community channel.	Active
OSM Forum Australian section	The OSM Forum. The forum is very actively used by other communities, but is less frequently used by the Australian community.	Less Active
OSM Community Oceania	The Oceania category for the official Discourse site community.osm.org.	Barely any yet

International Channels

Name	Description	Relative Activity
#osm IRC (Web client)	Not Australian specific, but a good international place to hang out and ask questions.	Active
OSM Help forum	Good place to get help for general mapping issues	Active
/r/openstreetmap	Good subreddit for general news/discussion.	Active

Find Nearby Mappers

• Have a look at the Category:Users in Australia page to see who is active. Link your own user page to the appropriate State or Territory category to join this list of proud mappers.
• Find out who contributes around you
• Look at a list of most prolific mappers in Australia
• WhoDidIt can be used to see changes made in an area of your choosing.

Formal Organisations

The Australian OSM community has joined with our regional neighbours to form OSGeo Oceania, which serves as our local chapter of the OSMF Foundation.

Events and Mapping Parties

There is a strong tradition of hosting mapping parties in Australia. For past events, see Australian Mapping Community/Past Events.

Calendar

Add your event to OpenStreetMap Calendar

Organised Editing Teams

• TfNSW

Archive

Over the many years of the Australian OSM project, many pages have been created and then superseded or left unmaintained. These pages have been archived for posterity.

Archived Australian Pages

• Australian News
• Aussie Mapnik Style Changes
• Foundation/Local Chapters/Australia
• Draft Rules
• Tips especially for Aussies
• Starting with a Blank Map in Australia
• Australian Service Station Tagging
• Australia Building Footprints
• Australian Geographic Reference Image
• Australian Bureau of Meteorology
• Municipal Association Victoria
• QueenslandDcdbLite
• Data.australia.gov.au/Queensland/Wetlands
• Data.australia.gov.au/Queensland
• Data.vic.gov.au
• Data.australia.gov.au/South Australia
• Data.australia.gov.au/South Australia/National Parks
• Data.australia.gov.au/World Heritage Areas
• Data.australia.gov.au/Northern Territory
• Data.australia.gov.au/ACT
• Victoria, Australia old project content
• Victoria, Australia/Road progress
• Public transport in Victoria (Australia)/Metlink
• WikiProject South Australia
• WikiProject South Australia/POI
• OpenRailwayMap Tagging
• Lakes of Western Australia