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A Cheaper "Postal Area" alternative.
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With the release in late 2007 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) of the 2006
Census Data Packs (CDP), a potential alternative to Postcode Area data has become
available in the form of Census "Postal Areas", or POAs.
Hidden within the CDPs and accessible only with know-how and the necessary software
tools, are digital "Postal Areas". These approximate our Postcode Area Data in
some respects, and may be a surrogate alternative for some users.
We have introduced a POA data extraction and standardisation service which is available
for a fixed fee of A$1,250 + GST if applicable. If you know this is what
you want (caution urged), jump in the deep end and fill in this
form.
Below is a summary of the requirements of this service, followed by a comparison
between our own Postcode Area products and the POA option extracted from the CDPs. In
addition some obvious questions (and answers) you'll probably have are at the end of the
page here.
2. You must supply a copy of your tax invoice from your ABS purchase when
requesting this service.
3. Just as with our Postcode Area Data products, please specify the
format you require (ESRI .shp; MapInfo mif/mid; Google Earth KML/KMZ are the default
options)
Currency: Always up-to-date. See here for current update status.
Currency: Variable, but the most recent would be 2006 and
may be as old as 1994 in some places.
Update availability: Yes. See our Update Service page for details.
Update availability: No. The data are as supplied, for
purposes of the 2006 Census. As such an updated version will not be released until the
results of the next Census are published, most likely in 2012.
Accuracy: Accurate for all current Australia Post
postcodes. Our Postcode Area Data products have been specifically created and are
maintained for the geographic display and analysis of your data based on the location and
extent of Postcode Areas, referenced against the definitive Australia Post postcode
database.
Accuracy: Based entirely on State and Territory
"standard mapping features" for the extracted POA boundaries which result from
this service. The ABS data are created specifically for Census purposes, which is why they
are aligned to standard mapping features. Origin by definition is for other purposes,
routinely land tenure and general topographic mapping. Typically they do not have anything
to do with Postcode Areas as such, particularly in regional Australia. There often are
closer similarities in metropolitan districts (but be aware of the currency issues
mentioned above). See the map below for an illustration.
Also,
please note that the POA data restricts postal area values to a single State or Territory,
a requirement of it's compilation for Census purposes. Given that several Australia Post
postcodes legitimately occur in multiple States / Territories, there may be unwanted
outcomes from this source, depending on the nature of your business, region of operation
and your own data.
Functionality: Optimised for display, query and analysis
of Postcode Area related data, reflecting the latest changes in Australia Post operations.
Functionality: Not optimised. Standard Mapping Features
are large scale entities. This results in very large data volumes (large files) which will
be relatively slow to display and cumbersome to analyse. The size difference between
Mapmakers optimised Postcode Area Data and the POA data is in the order of ten times. The
processing overheads (ie computer time) of analytical spatial computation is geometrically
related to data size. In simple terms, this means that undertaking a given task using the POA data instead of
the optimised MapMakers data will take 1000 times longer on a given machine. That can
mean the difference between several minutes or a few hours to many hours or even..
The
processed version of POA data you will receive from us if you use this service will have
been significantly improved (removal of redundant metrics, topologically corrected, data
fields rationalised) from that in the CDPs you have purchased. However it will still be
out-of-date and cumbersome in use compared to our own Postcode Area Data products.
This map image shows an area of north west Sydney and illustrates the two data sets.
The POA data are shown as dashed line boundaries and their Postal Area labels have a
magenta background. MapMakers Postcode Area data are shown with thematically coloured line
boundaries and Postcode values with a yellow background. While similar in many respects,
our Postcode Areas are created exclusively for that purpose. The POA data use the closest
standard mapping feature as boundaries, and do not claim to be Postcode Areas as such.
Note that some newer postcodes do not appear in the POA data at all (for example postcode
2769 near the centre of the image). If "close enough is good enough" and your
budget is restrictive, the POA surrogate alternative may be worth considering...
Licensing: These are products made and maintained by
MapMakers Australia. the license agreement is between you the user and ourselves. We
strive to make access to and deployment of our products as flexible and uncomplicated as
possible.
Licensing: The licensing arrangements and any usage
conditions are those you undertake with the ABS when purchasing a 2006 Census Data Pack;
they have nothing whatsoever to do with MapMakers Australia. We simply offer you a
commercial service to extract, rationalise and make useable the relevant components of
your ABS purchase.
Software requirements: You will need a Geographic Information System software application. If you do not
require sophisticated analysis, please consider our pre-formatted Postcode Map Series products, as
these do not require specialist software. You can view the data in Google Earth if you
choose the .KML format (but please be aware of the limitations, see the answer to Q1. below).
Software requirements: You will need a Geographic Information System software application. Alternatively,
you can view the data in Google Earth if you choose the .KML format (but please be aware
of the limitations, see the answer to Q1.
below).
Options: Available for any State or Territory (NSW and
ACT are supplied as a combined data set), or as a discounted Australian compilation.
Options: Supplied as separate files for each Australian
State and Territory, just as on your ABS purchase.
A1. Yes, we can supply either our own Postcode Area Data or the extracted ABS POA data
in a format suitable for Google Earth use. There are illustrations elsewhere on our site. Be aware though that Google Earth is
primarily a viewing environment, with little scope for anything else. Also the same file
size and performance issues will be felt when
using Google Earth. The POA data will load and display slowly and you may be unable to
load all of the Austrlain States and Territory files together, especially if you do not
have a high performance machine. The MapMakers Postcode Area data on the other hand will
display almost instantly, even on most laptops. Below is POA Data in KML format displayed
using Google Earth, showing an area of the NSW northern coast and hinterland.
Q2. So does the POA alternative resulting from this service have all the Census
data attached?
A2. No. This service is aimed primarily at customers who wish to assign some spatial
(map) context to existing in-house data, often sales and marketing databases having
address fields with postcodes. The process for using the Census data in your ABS purchase
is unaffected by this service. We can assist if adding Census data to extracted POA's is a
desired outcome, however this is an additional custom mapping service and completely
separate from the service specified on this page. We have an overview of our custom
mapping services here.
Q3. Why would we buy a single user copy of your Postcode Area Data for over
twice the price of this POA alternative?!
A3. For all the reasons detailed above. The dollar
values are a reflection of all the material values you would consider when making a
purchase choice of any kind, including whether it is the current "model",
suitability for the use you intend, how efficient it will be in use, expected life span
and obsolescence to take a few obvious ones. However, the POA option could be a suitable
alternative for your business.
POA data extraction and standardisation service request form
Please use this form to request the POA extraction and standardisation service.
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