Geocaching Australia

Has anyone else noticed on the GCa front page where new caches and recommended caches etc, are listed with their suburb or area, that the suburb does not really match what seems to be conventional suburb areas or the listing has something completely separate from road maps or google maps? Im not sure how prevalent it is for southern states or more built up areas, but i have noticed a few here locally (cairns area) that have area/suburb listings i have never even heard of and are not listed in the street directory of cairns either. Does anyone know exactly which data source the website uses and if it is publicly viewable (internet) would be interesting to look at.

The data is Australia Post postcode data.
The data has multiple location names (locales) for various postcode areas and are NOT suburbs, they are postcode areas.
As there are multiple postcode area names for the same set of co-ords we pick the "first" one that comes out of the database.

Ah... im just going to give up now, after locating said 'odd' suburb "Meringa" and using Aus post postcode locator, i fail to find a match for the suburb listed. I was under the impression the location should have been edmonton or Mt Peter from the location. Damn shifty posties Dont matter....

I should add that the data is some 10 years (or so) old, so it's also very possible that that locale no longer exists (if it ever did).

Having said that, however, there is this ... http://www.weathercity.com/au/qld/meringa/ and this http://nona.net/features/map/placedetai ... 0/Meringa/ and this is the centre of Maringa http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&sour ... 2&t=h&z=15

Not to say either is right or wrong, but it does seem to exist, even though AP now say that name doesn't match up to a postcode area. Ahhh, the beauties and frustrations of free data.

It is indeed a strange artefact. It's as though it automatically picks the next suburb to where the location actually is. A new cache right on Pymble railway station was listed as Gordon some 2km away. A cache of mine not 200m from Pennant Hills post office is listed as Thornleigh. A cache on the boundary of Pennant Hills and Beecroft is listed as Cheltenham the next suburb south.
Very strange but it's all we've got I guess. I know when I get a notification of a new cache to check the map rather than just look at the suburb.

The postcode locales are points, not boundaries.
It picks the closest point to the cache.
So if it's at the edge of a boundary and point A is closer than Point B, even if Point B is the name of the locale, it will choose Point A.
Now if we could get the boundary data for all the postcode locales we could solve this problem, but it's not available so we go with what we've got.

caughtatwork wrote:I should add that the data is some 10 years (or so) old, so it's also very possible that that locale no longer exists (if it ever did).

Having said that, however, there is this ... http://www.weathercity.com/au/qld/meringa/ and this http://nona.net/features/map/placedetai ... 0/Meringa/ and this is the centre of Maringa http://maps.google.com.au/maps?f=q&sour ... 2&t=h&z=15

Well those places do seem to be in the general area, never knew it was called that. Although as usual their weather forecast for the day is wrong Bright and sunny today Cheers for the clarification C@W

No problems.

We've been looking at the Google Maps API for geocoding locales, states and countries, the latter two to avoid you having to enter them manually, so maybe this is getting close to the time to enact those investigations.

caughtatwork wrote:The postcode locales are points, not boundaries.
It picks the closest point to the cache.
So if it's at the edge of a boundary and point A is closer than Point B, even if Point B is the name of the locale, it will choose Point A.
Now if we could get the boundary data for all the postcode locales we could solve this problem, but it's not available so we go with what we've got.

I am continually surprised by how widely postal areas are used, given how crap (or completely non-existent) Aust Posts boundaries are

GCA often lists my location as Rookwood. I can assure all of you I do not live in the cemetery.

tronador wrote:GCA often lists my location as Rookwood. I can assure all of you I do not live in the cemetery.

Where DO you live now? (just so I know where to drop all my spare gnomes )

blossom* wrote:

tronador wrote:GCA often lists my location as Rookwood. I can assure all of you I do not live in the cemetery.

Where DO you live now? (just so I know where to drop all my spare gnomes )

Yes please. I 'm just about to drop my 2 favourites near my letter box.
Still in Lidcombe but moved up to Botanica, feel free to drop as many as you like, nothing quite like a gnome appearing on your doorstep. And i sure hope it was your garden I was rumaging around in yesterday when i couldn't find the gnome. the neighbour at up the street was giving me the heebie jeebies.

Thank you faeries, the strange suburb listings seem to be all fixed now. At least my suburb is now listed and so are the locales of all the other gnomes, the listings are now accurate, as far as I can see.

tronador wrote: Thank you faeries, the strange suburb listings seem to be all fixed now. At least my suburb is now listed and so are the locales of all the other gnomes, the listings are now accurate, as far as I can see.

No complaints here, but my latest micro -- left on Katoomba Street in central downtown Katoomba -- is still listed as being in 'Leura!' Am sure those Katoomba coffee shops would love to be doing business in Leura but not having to pay Leura Mall rents!

pjmpjm wrote:

tronador wrote: Thank you faeries, the strange suburb listings seem to be all fixed now. At least my suburb is now listed and so are the locales of all the other gnomes, the listings are now accurate, as far as I can see.

No complaints here, but my latest micro -- left on Katoomba Street in central downtown Katoomba -- is still listed as being in 'Leura!' Am sure those Katoomba coffee shops would love to be doing business in Leura but not having to pay Leura Mall rents!

Your cache was created about 3 hours before the new code went into place, so it still has the "old" method of gaining a locale.
I've edited your cache listing (no changes) and it has now updated to Katoomba.
Anything created prior to about 10:00PM on Friday 14-Jan-2010 will still have the old locales.