MEDIA RELEASE
Parliamentary Secretary to the
Minister for Industry, Science and Resources
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MEDIA RELEASE |
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Warren Entsch, MP Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources |
Tuesday, 17 November 1998
Geographic information held by Government agencies throughout Australia has been made more accessible to the public through a special directory on the Internet, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Industry, Science and Resources, Warren Entsch, announced today.
The development of the Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) by Commonwealth and State Government agencies, was coordinated by the Australian Surveying and Land Information Group (AUSLIG), Environment Australia and the Bureau of Resource Sciences.
"The Directory provides access to data catalogues held by many Australian Government agencies via the World Wide Web," Mr Entsch said.
"The extent of geographic or spatial information available about a particular area can now be gleaned from the one inquiry.
"This will no doubt prove beneficial for resource and environmental managers, researchers, planners and others who rely on geographic information to do their job."
The ASDD provides direct access to more than 3500 datasets distributed throughout Australia through a simple method of search, discovery and retrieval of spatial datasets.
"The Directory has been operating in prototype mode for almost a year now, averaging 2000 hits per month," Mr Entsch said. "This is expected to grow as knowledge of the service becomes more widely known."
The ASDD is an initiative of Australia’s peak land information forum, the Australia New Zealand Land Information Council, and an important element of the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure which aims to improve access to, and availability of, nationally consistent spatial datasets.
The Internet address for the ASDD is http://www.environment.gov.au/net/asdd/
For more information, contact AUSLIG on Freecall 1800 800 173.