Adding Australian Postcode Areas using MapIt data

This practice note covers how to obtain and upload MapIt data to Crisisworks to create a geospatial layer of a postcode area.

Adding a postcode area as a geospatial feature

This example demonstrates how to add postcode data from MapIt Australia as a geospatial feature. Once added you can search within the area using the 'within:' option in advanced search, and view the area as a map layer.

1. Add new Library item

2. Set the Reference Type to Geospatial Feature

3. Enter a useful Title such as Preston area 3072, and add a tag such as postcode

4. Select a Geospatial Category, such as Area of Interest or define your own via Lookups.

5. Instead of manually drawing the area, we will use precise data from http://mapit.openlocal.org.au

6. Scroll to the bottom of the form to Geospatial Data Loaders and select Clipboard Data Loader.

7. Copy and paste the geospatial data into this field. Up until this point if you save the library record you will have created a normal geospatial record which can be shown on the map under the map layer "Library Item: Area of Interest" and you can also link other records to this library record such as requests or information or infrastructure assessments. The next step will allow us to use this as a search area when doing searches in datagrids.

8. Under the search section, select Include in search

9. In the Search Short Reference field, enter a short name for the area (eg 3072, pc3072). Avoid spaces for easier search, but if needed, use quotes when searching.

10. Save the record.

For example: priority:[high,urgent] within:pc3072 will find high priority OR urgent records that are only in the 3072 postcode.

If there was a space in the search name you would need to add a quote eg: priority:[high,urgent] within:"pc 3072"

Example, MapIt postcode data

For each state try the following link:

• VIC http://mapit.openlocal.org.au/areas/LVI.html

• QLD http://mapit.openlocal.org.au/areas/LQL.html

• NSW http://mapit.openlocal.org.au/areas/LNS.html

• SA http://mapit.openlocal.org.au/areas/LSA.html

• WA http://mapit.openlocal.org.au/areas/LWA.html

For this example, I will get the postcode data for 3072 by doing the following

• Select the "Darebin" local government from the Victorian area,

• Then select "Overlapping this area" from the "Areas" section on the page

• Then select "pc3072"

• on the next page select "WKT" under the "Geometry" section