Internet users can now log on and get all sorts of maps and information about properties along Sydney's Parramatta Road, such as where the boundaries are, the area's contours, and zoning and planning policies.

'Sydney's Information Highway', as the new system is known, provides members of the public and the business community with better access to government information.

It will be officially launched by Warwick Watkins, Director General of the NSW Department of Information Technology and Management at 5:30pm, Thursday June 22, 2001, at the Masonic Centre, Corner of Goulburn and Castlereagh Streets, Sydney. Members of the media are invited to attend.

"In the past, people had to go to separate councils and state agencies and collect information from each. This new system provides a one-stop shop for the information they need, across council boundaries," says Susan McHattie, Executive Officer of the Inner Metropolitan Region of Councils (IMROC).

"It saves time for everyone, and makes the information more accessible and therefore more valuable," she says.

The system is the result of collaboration between IMROC, the Councils along Parramatta Road, and several state government departments, and uses advanced CSIRO technology.

The free service combines information from 11 Sydney Councils and 4 state Government departments. It currently provides satellite imagery, maps of roads, contours, property boundaries, water courses and services, information about zoning, planning policy and even traffic accident data.

The Information Highway is set to grow in the future, to cover a greater area and to include more information.

The system is not only useful for business and residents; it also makes life easier, and increases efficiency, in the Councils themselves. It provides a single source of information to inform urban design, master-planning, heritage and environmental management, and for assessing developments.

"We have found that the system demonstrates the ease and the benefits of sharing information using the Internet. We have forecast reduced costs for all project partners by removing the duplication in maintaining databases and reducing the risk of using inaccurate information," says Ms McHattie.

"This program of information sharing is another demonstration of the benefits that Councils make for their communities by working together through Regional Organisations," says IMROC President, Councillor Mark Bonanno.

"The demonstration of the software along Parramatta Road gives Councillors and officers, and the business community, a common view of the road as we work together to revitalise the area and solve business viability, traffic flow, heritage and development issues," he says.

"The system will really come into its own in stage two when we can provide this level of information for whole municipalities, and more information. This is where our members and our state government partners will begin to realise the reduced costs and increased accuracy," says Mr Bonanno.

IMROC is pursuing support to extend the system, and already several agencies and councils have joined the stage-two team.

"Partnership is the key to the success of this project," says Ms McHattie.

"Each of our project partners is attempting to solve the issue of access to information. We recognise the value of maintaining the information that is our core business and sharing that information with other agencies. It is a way of building a common library, if you like; reducing duplication and increasing quality and accuracy," she says.

Sydney's Information Highway solves a common business problem. Integrating information held in different places and often in different types of database with different formats is technically difficult. The problem was overcome with CSIRO technology.

"The technology combines the information seamlessly, drawing it from different databases and bringing it together using the infrastructure of the Internet," says Mike Clarke from CSIRO.

"In the past, bringing all this information together would have required all the data to be moved into a new, central, common database - a massive upheaval for the councils."

"This system allows the project partners to retain their own databases. They are just hooked up to the system via the Internet," he says

The system has been published as 'open source' software, making it available for other agencies to create similar systems for other parts of Australia.

"With open source software, other programmers can read, redistribute, and modify the back-ground source for the software. People improve it and adapt it for their own needs, and any future developments can be used by all current developers," says Mr Clarke.

The Sydney Information Highway project was funded through the Australian Spatial Data Infrastructure Partnership Grants Program of Australia's national mapping agency, AUSLIG (see www.auslig.gov.au/asdi/ for more on the program).

The councils involved in the project are the IMROC councils of Ashfield, Burwood, Canada Bay, Lane Cove, Leichhardt, South Sydney, Strathfield and City of Sydney, along with Holroyd, Marrickville and Parramatta. Several state departments and agencies also contributed: the NSW Department of Urban Affairs & Planning, the Department of Land & Water Conservation, the Department of Information Technology & Management, the Roads & Traffic Authority NSW, and the Office of the Sydney Harbour Manager.

Sydney's Information Highway is online at: www.imroc.org.au/im31200.htm

Images to accompany this story are available from www.cmis.csiro.au/mediapics.htm

More information:

Susan McHattie, Executive Officer, IMROC  0417 047 924

Mike Clarke, CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences 0417 262 286 

Deborah Brooks, Media Assistance  0418 631 472

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