Etiquette for access to private station tracks

Hullo Mick

You are spot on wrt maps not keeping up to date with the status of rural/outback "roads"

After some experiences in roughly the same area as you - western NSW - I contacted the national mapping mob re out of date maps, particularly the 250 000 series that many of us use on our GPS systems. Their predicatable and understandable reply was, of course, lack of resources (people) to check in the field.

I made the suggestion that they could perhaps use satellite imagery to at least do a overview check, given the advances in resolution/ frequency of new data and gave an example that we had come across - a thick red dashed line which is now clearly no more than a station access track, both on the ground and from the satellite photo.

He agreed and said they would take the suggestion seriously. Of course, it will take time. But in the longer term, it would be a significant advance on what we have now. Personally I try to review the route in advance using satellite imagary but that does not necessarily work for last minute changes in the field.

The other issue is printed maps vs electronic copy, as the latter is so much easier to keep up to date and issue.

Cheers
Andrew

The best etiquette is to always enquire of the property owner/manager about access.

However viewing Parish/County maps at Shire offices will give you a prior idea as to what is public gazzetted or otherwise.
You will also get contact names and numbers which assist with your bonfides.

Some property owners (illegally) lock roads off to suit their purpose.
In some instances this is done to deter stock theft which in our area is very prevalent.
mike

Occasionally a property owner will claim that a public road is private too.

Cheers,
Peter
OKA196 Motorhome

I bought my hema map book last year in hard copy.

Hi Again yagon
I’ve checked in @ RACQ this morning on the book forms of Hema maps etc.
2011 edition has the same road markings as my 2009 edition. This means that there’s been no upgrades for some time. I’m not sure what the downloaded versions have as I’m very happy with my book form maps atm.


Don’t let this put a dampener on your desired travels.


As Peter, Mick O & Mike suggests , check with the property owner or you could also check in at the local pub as these folks have “a finger on the pulse” on most things local.


As an example, my Dad had 2 Brisbane 4x4 enthusiasts go past his house 10 years ago, not stopping as a courtesy, & proceeded along a track that was quite boggy from the previous days storms in January. In the middle of summer – temps get around 40* for weeks when these people came through.
Suffice to say, they were told that the road is “private” as is the sign at the entry past the creek says “Private Road”.
These folks were also driving on a track not on the map & doesn’t go any where either, just into thicker scrub as the tourists would have experienced.


Their maps were prob just like yours & mine….a road that was never public to the house apart from the 1st 3kms & this 3km has been closed for the past 15 / 16 years. (see further notes below)
There are prob many errors like this all over Australia.
They would eventually have gotten bogged & perhaps be stranded for days if my Dad hadn’t seen them go by. They were making quite a mess of the track as well.


They learned very valuable lessons that day.


Peter, apparently it may be illegal to close a said road for public use.
My Dad has been paying a levy to “The Crown” - his words – for 15 or 16 years to have it closed to the public. Other property are more than likely doing the same.
He also says that the “public” road was always gazetted to just past the Creek / River, but the mapping folks have made a mistake putting dotted lines further into the house, prob decades ago.


Folks, I’m sorry for going on about this, but I wanted to clarify why not all roads on maps are not open for any traveller & as there are thousands of brown dotted roads across Oz, the mapping people would be having trouble keeping up with the changes.


I’m not suggesting that all drivers are as uniformed as the above drivers were, but this story goes to show that they do exist.


Cheers
Sue