bulldust
DEAN MELLORD
O YOU remember what it was like
navigating in the bush prior to
the advent of global positioning
systems? As I recall it, using a
topographic map, a compass and a
ruler was sometimes a bit of a hit-and-
miss affair, especially when trying to
navigate in heavy scrub.
It could also be very expensive.
Before heading off on a four-wheel
drive adventure – even a short
weekend away – you’d have to rifle
through the filing cabinet to make sure
you had all the topo maps covering the
areas you intended to travel through. If
you were missing any maps, you’d then
have to head off to your nearest map
store and stock up, usually at a cost of
around 10 bucks a map. Depending on
where you were going you might need
a couple of 1:100,000 topos and half
a dozen 1:25,000 topos to even cover
a relatively small area – so $80 or so
later you could be on your way.
But hang on a tick. First you’d have
to navigate your way to your intendedoff-road destination, which would
involve using a series of road maps or
a road atlas. Of course, due to their
expense, you’d hang on to these for as
long as possible, so they were usually
out of date, meaning you’d often have
to rely on your nous to get you through.
On top of these – and the topos – you
might also have to throw in a few local
visitors’ maps, some state forest maps
and some Hema or Westprint Maps, as
these would include additional useful
information covering the area you were
driving through.
With so many maps to carry you’d
need a folder, folio or briefcase to
store them, and it was always a
good idea to put them in some
sort of order prior to departure so
you weren’t muddling through them
once underway.
Once you finally made it to the
off-road part of your trip, you could
unfurl your brand new topo map on the
bonnet of your 4x4 (assuming it wasn’t
raining, dark or windy) to see exactly
where you were. Unfortunately, evenyour brand new topo was likely out of
date. These maps were only revised
occasionally and it could be more than
a decade since they were last updated,
so chances were that other than the
topographic lines depicting the natural
terrain, a lot of the other information
might be incorrect, with missing tracks
and various other features absent.
I don’t know about you, but I was
always very particular with the way I
handled my topo maps. But even taking
extra care to make sure I folded them
away correctly, they’d often start to
wear on the folds – I still have a bunch
of maps in my filing cabinet with holes
worn through them from regular use.
These holes would, without fail, start
to develop right at a critical junction
of two tracks, ensuring the decision-
making process would be as hard as
possible when considering whether to
turn left or right at the end of a long
day of forging through the scrub.
I always considered myself to be
reasonably competent when navigating
with topo maps, a compass and a
ruler. But I also recall the feeling of
self-doubt creeping in on a regular
basis when driving up an unfamiliar
track that didn’t seem quite right- especially when leading a convoy
towards the end of the day when
everyone was hoping for a hot meal
and somewhere warm and dry to spend
the night.
These days we’ve got it easy – you
don’t even need a dedicated GPS
device. There are any number of apps
you can download on your smartphone
or tablet that will give you access to
the latest topographic map, and they
include various features so you always
know exactly where you are and how
to easily navigate to where you want to
be. You don’t even need a compass or
a ruler!
Just make sure you don’t drop your
phone or tablet in a puddle of water, or
the only place you’ll find yourself is up
the proverbial creek.
BEFORE THE ADVENT OF GPS, PAPER MAPS WERE AN OFF-ROADER’S
BEST – AND WORST – FRIEND.
168 http://www.4X4australia.com.au