Australia – The Map Room

Empty Land Doesn’t Vote (and Neither Do Kangaroos): What Australian and Canadian Election Maps Do (and Don’t Do) About It

Published on 7 May 20257 May 2025 by Jonathan Crowe

Both Australia and Canada had federal elections last week. Both countries have overwhelmingly urban populations (Australia 87%, Canada 82%) and vast tracts of sparsely populated territory, which means that strictly geographical election maps of both countries suffer from the “empty land doesn’t vote” problem. But that doesn’t seem to stop such maps from being used.

As I posted about the maps of the last Canadian federal election in 2019 (1, 2, 3), most static election maps in Canada use the Lambert projection, whereas online maps generally use Web Mercator; cartograms and such aren’t really a thing. I suspect that this is a combination of the Lambert being very familiar to Canadians (it’s pretty much the default projection for static maps) whereas a cartogram isn’t: it’s easier and less disorienting to use the Lambert with inset maps, or zoom in on Web Mercator. Canadians aren’t dumb: we know that there are lots of seats in and around Toronto and Montreal, and that hardly anyone lives in Nunavut, and even zooming all the way out in Web Mercator won’t fool us. Besides, with four parties capable of winning expansive rural or northern seats, the urban-rural split isn’t quite as binary as it is elsewhere, so the urgency of correcting the map by showing votes or seats—the need to say land doesn’t vote—isn’t quite there.

Maps Mania has a roundup of some media maps of the Canadian election results. Jens von Bergmann crunches the riding-by-riding results with some maps and visualizations—including an animation that morphs between a geographic map and a Dorling cartogram.

Geographic maps also tend to be used for Australian election results, to the point that in 2022 ABC News (the Australian one) ran a piece saying that the election map was lying to you (previously). Once again, Maps Mania has a roundup of Australian election maps this time around: ABC goes full cartogram, using British-style hex maps showing results and vote swing; The Australian sticks with geographical maps; and The Guardian toggles between geographical and “exaggerated” maps that enlarge urban constituencies while maintaining Australia’s overall shape, which I find an interesting compromise.

Apple Maps Adds Indigenous Lands and Place Names to Australia and New Zealand

Published on 1 April 20251 April 2025 by Jonathan Crowe

Apple announced last week that Apple Maps will now display Indigenous lands, place names and other content in Australia and New Zealand.

Beginning today, Apple Maps now displays Indigenous lands in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. By gathering information from Indigenous advisors, cartographers, Traditional Owners, language holders, and community members, Apple Maps will show reserves and Indigenous Protected Areas, Indigenous place names, Traditional Country, and dual-language labels. Indigenous lands place cards feature information about the local area and Traditional Owners, and can be curated to allow communities to add their own photos, destinations on their land, and text in their own language. Representation of Indigenous lands in Apple Maps provides users with a more comprehensive experience while also recognising the stories and significance behind them.

More at the Guardian. This follows Apple’s move to show Indigenous lands in Canada and the U.S. in 2023. [Lat × Long]

Apple Maps Lists Australian Restaurant as ‘Permanently Closed’—It Isn’t

Published on 31 January 202431 January 2024 by Jonathan Crowe

ABC News (Australia) reports on how Apple Maps erroneously listed a Queensland restaurant as permanently closed, costing it thousands of dollars in lost business. What’s noteworthy is the difficulty the restaurant owner had in correcting the error. Apple accepts error reports via its browser and apps, and the owner is an Android and Windows user, but it seems to be more than that: a 9to5Mac commenter found it easier to correct map errors via their personal Apple ID than as a small business owner, whereas Google Maps makes it easier for businesses. The ABC News report goes on to note that this is not an isolated incident. [9to5Mac/AppleInsider]

The Wollongong Map

Published on 16 June 2023 by Jonathan Crowe

Alexander Pescud spent more than 500 hours drawing the Wollongong Map, a black-and-white panoramic map of the Australian city of Wollongong. I’ve been told that the map will have its official launch on 22 June at the Gong’s Bad News Gallery. Prints are available for sale, naturally.

Australian Federal Election Results

Published on 24 May 2022 by Jonathan Crowe

Map of Australian 2022 federal election results (The Guardian) Leading up to last Saturday’s federal election in Australia, ABC News Australia had a page explaining the usual problem with geographic electoral maps when sparsely populated rural districts are enormous and lots of voters are concentrated in the cities. Calling the page “The Australian electoral map has been lying to you” might have been torquing things a bit, though. Then again, via Maps Mania, live election results maps from The Australian and The Guardian both use straight geographic maps, so maybe not.

Apple Maps Asia-Pacific Update

Published on 15 December 202115 December 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Apple’s new maps have come to Australia [9to5Mac, MacRumors].

Meanwhile, the South China Morning Post reports that “iPhone and Apple Watch users in China can no longer see their geographic coordinates and elevation on the Compass app, according to Chinese media reports and user comments. However, information including bearings and general location are still available.”

And according to a report in The Information (paywall) that was summarized by John Gruber, back in 2014 or 2015 the Chinese State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping required Apple Maps to make the disputed Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands appear large even when zoomed out, and made the Apple Watch’s Chinese release contingent on that request—to which Apple acquiesced.

Maps of the Pacific

Published on 17 November 202117 November 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Henri Abraham Chatelain, *Carte très curieuse de la Mer du Sud*, 1719. Map, 76.6 × 137.9 cm.

Maps of the Pacific is an exhibition of the State Library of New South Wales’s holdings of maps, charts atlases and globes relating to the Pacific Ocean. “This exhibition traces the European mapping of the Pacific across the centuries—an endeavour that elevated the science and art of European mapmaking. Redrawing the map of the world ultimately facilitated an era of brutal colonisation and dispossession for many Pacific First Nations communities.” Open now at the library’s exhibition galleries in Sydney, the exhibition runs until 24 April 2022. Free admission.

In related news, the library’s Mapping the Pacific conference (previously) has been postponed to March 2022.

Upcoming Conference: Mapping the Pacific

Published on 23 June 202117 November 2021 by Jonathan Crowe

Taking place on 25 and 26 August 2021 in Sydney, Australia, Mapping the Pacific will be a hybrid (in-person and streamed) conference that will explore “the traditional wayfinding knowledge of the Pacific community, European exploration and the mapping of the Pacific from the early modern era through to the 19th century.” Registration is not yet open.

Update 17 Nov 2021: Conference postponed to March 2022.

Google Removing Uluru Street View Images

Published on 29 September 2020 by Jonathan Crowe

Google has agreed to Parks Australia’s request that user photos taken from the summit of Uluru (formerly known as Ayers Rock) be removed from Street View; climbing Uluru, which is owned by and sacred to the Pitjantjatjara people, has been prohibited since 2019. ABC Australia, CNN. As of this writing a couple of images are still visible. Aerial coverage is unaffected. [Boing Boing]

Australia to Eliminate Paper Topographic Maps

Published on 29 October 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

The Australian government agency responsible for printing topographic maps will stop printing them as of December, ABC Australia reports. Geoscience Australia cites a lack of demand for paper maps, but as you can imagine there’s some pushback against the decision.

(The Canadian government tried something similar back in 2006, but the decision was overturned after a public outcry.)

Copyright and Cartography

Published on 1 August 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

Copyright and Cartography is a research project exploring the historical relationship between cartography and copyright law.

Throughout history, maps have been made and used in different ways and for different purposes. They can be seen as cultural artefacts, artworks, sacred objects and tools for wayfinding. Often their purposes are legal—they can be used to administer property regimes, resolve proprietary disputes or make territorial claims. But what about the laws that regulate the maps themselves, that decide who can own them or who can distribute them? This website explores these questions, juxtaposing images of maps with the legal documents intimately involved in their creation and circulation.

The project focuses on mapmakers in London, Edinburgh, Melbourne and Sydney, and seems to be in the early stages, with only a dozen cases, relating to infringement and other copyright disputes, listed.

This project is limited to cases in the U.K. and Australia. Back in 2000, J. B. Post compiled a list of cases of copyright litigation in the U.S. from 1789 to 1998: the page is no longer online but can be accessed via the Wayback Machine.

Sydney on the Map

Published on 4 July 2019 by Jonathan Crowe

John Carmichael, *Map of the Town of Sydney*, 1837. National Library of Australia.

Back in May the Sydney Morning Herald took a look at an exhibition of maps of Sydney. Cartographica: Sydney on the Map presents reproductions rather than originals, and runs until 1 Sept 2019 at Sydney’s Customs House. Free admission.

Restoring a 150-Foot Map of Australia in the English Countryside

Published on 15 November 2018 by Jonathan Crowe

During World War I, Australian troops staying at nearby Hurdcott Camp carved a gigantic map of Australia into a Wiltshire hillside. Chalk gravel was used to fill shallow trenches to create an outline map some 150 feet wide with 18-foot-tall letters. Since then, despite a restoration in the 1950s and its designation as a Scheduled Ancient Monument, the map has faded, but for the past four years the Map of Australia Trust has been working on restoring the map. It was finished in time for Armistice Day. More from BBC News (video) and Historic England. [Jonathan Potter]

Clickhole: Rising Sea Levels to Turn Australia into a Rhombus

Published on 12 February 2018 by Jonathan Crowe

Clickhole, The Onion’s satirical clickbait website, had a hilarious piece last October declaring that rising sea levels will turn Australia into a rhombus: good news for cartographers, for whom Australia will be easier to draw.

According to a new study by the National Ocean Service, melting icecaps and glaciers will raise sea levels enough to cause drastic coastal erosion to virtually every landmass on the planet, including Australia, which will transform from its current shapeless continental configuration into a crisp, tightly angled quadrilateral. While this will unquestionably result in an incalculable amount of economic and ecological devastation, it will likely be a welcome change for cartographers, who instead of spending hours trying to perfect the jagged and asymmetrical outline of the Australian coast like they do now, will in the coming decades be able to handily dash off a geographically accurate rendering of the continent in just a few seconds flat.

In your face, Wyoming. [Cartophilia]