Digital topographic data

Queensland topographic features are depicted by digital data showing information about the shape of the land – both natural features and purpose-built structures.

Free online access

The Queensland Government no longer sells printed copies of topographic maps. For free online access:

Email opendata@resources.qld.gov.au if you have any questions about topographic data.

Reliability

Our topographic data is continually being improved using information from:

  • recently captured ortho-rectified imagery
  • field inspections
  • data supplied by external agencies that we have collaborative agreements with (e.g. Geoscience Australia)
  • data supplied from other State Government departments that we have data share licence agreements with.

A program has commenced to hydrologically validate the hydrography data for inclusion in the Australian Hydrological Geospatial Fabric.

Data themes

Topographic data over an area includes information on one or more of these themes:

  • culture – man-made features (e.g. hospitals, educational institutions, emergency services facilities)
  • framework – coastline, offshore islands, seas and mainland
  • hydrography – natural and man-made inland water features (e.g. streams, rivers, lakes, reservoirs which depict the drainage network (PDF, 1.7MB) used in topographic mapping and hydrological modelling)
  • physiography – named natural features (e.g. bays, beaches, mountains ranges, peaks)
  • relief – topography of the land depicted as contours (PDF, 2.8MB)
  • transport – infrastructure (e.g. roads and railways)
  • digital elevation model (DEM) – a regular or irregular grid of elevation heights (PDF, 3.1MB) from photogrammetric projects or current and proposed airborne laser scanning (LiDAR) projects (PDF, 2.4MB).

Data attributes

Topographic data consists of:

  • a spatial component including
    • the extent of large features displayed as polygons
    • points representing the centroids of small features
    • linear features representing watercourses, railways and roads
    • watercourses which are concatenated, segmented and flow directed for hydrological modelling.
  • an attribute component which may include (depending on the data theme)
    • area
    • feature description
    • feature name if available
    • source data of the feature
    • age of the source data of the feature.

Supply and pricing

Conditions of supply

Digital topographic data is supplied under a licence agreement. This determines the conditions for use established between you (as the customer) and us.

We license all digital data, whether a fee is charged or not. The different licences available are designed to suit your different uses. Different fees and conditions apply for different licence types.

Data supply

The data is available through QSpatial or supplied through our FTP web site.

Topographic maps can be viewed and downloaded using QTopo.

Data format

The digital topographic data is supplied in MapInfo or ArcView formats in GDA94.

Data products and prices

Digital drainage data

A range of products providing digital data files containing creek, river and coastline patterns captured suitable for 1:25,000, 1:10,000, 1:5,000 and 1:2,500 scale mapping. This data is suitable for use in geographic information systems.

Elevation data

A range of products providing digital data files containing contour patterns suitable for 1:25,000, 1:10,000, 1:5,000 and 1:2,500 scale mapping. Digital elevation models derived from this contour information are also available.

Classified LAS data derived from LiDAR

  • Per 1 kilometre square tile within a single project area, minimum of 25 tiles: {{ pass_346288 }}.

Contour data (25cm) derived from LiDAR

  • Per 1 kilometre square tile within a single project area, available in shapefile format, minimum of 40 tiles: {{ pass_34637 }}.

Data terrain model data derived from LiDAR

  • Per 1 kilometre square tile within a single project area, in ASCII Z grid or XYZ format, minimum of 50 tiles: {{ pass_34633 }}.

Data access, elevation/relief (customised data request service)

  • Price on application with minimum charge: {{ pass_6890 }}.

Contact us

  • Last reviewed: 8 Apr 2024
  • Last updated: 8 Apr 2024