Historical Aerial Photography Flight Lines and Photo Centres

Full description

This dataset shows where historical aerial photographs were taken, including the location of photo centres and the flight paths of the aircraft. A photo centre is the point on the ground directly beneath the camera when the photo was taken. A flight line is the path the aircraft flew when taking a series of photos.

Positions were obtained in different ways, depending on available information:
•    flight line diagrams: maps or drawings showing aircraft flight paths (also called ‘runs’) and photo centres locations (‘centroids’) in relation to ground features
•    georeferenced photo frames: photo frames aligned with known locations on a map
•    estimation: where direct information was limited, photo centres were estimated using available data
Each photo centre and flight line may include details such as:
•    capture date
•    the type of camera and film used
•    scanning status (for example, whether the photo has been scanned and is available digitally)

The dataset does not include the actual photographs. To view the photos, use the Australian Government Historical Aerial Photo Explorer app. This app allows people to search, view, and download the historical aerial photos themselves.

Lineage

Maintenance and Update Frequency: quarterly

Statement: The information about flight lines and photo centres in this dataset was compiled from historical sources and converted into digital form. This dataset is regularly updated as new information is discovered and photographs are digitised. Where a georeferenced flight line diagram was available for a set of photographs, the flight lines and photo centre points were digitised. Details written on these diagrams were transcribed (copied) into the dataset if they could be read. Many old diagrams were in poor condition or had blurry scans, which made the text hard to read and capture. Additional sources were used to check and add more details to the information. Data from the flight line diagrams was cross-referenced with records from the National Library of Australia, the National Archives of Australia, State and Territory government databases and other aerial photo records. In some cases, scanned aerial photograph frames were used. Notes attached to film rolls (known as film header files) provided additional details. If no flight line diagram was available, the positions of the flight path and photo centres were determined by georeferencing the scanned photo frames. This means the images were aligned with map coordinates to identify the flight path and photo centre locations. Where sources gave conflicting information, all available sources were compared. Features such as a photo location or date were attributed with the most likely correct information based on the best available evidence. Every effort was made to ensure the flight line paths and photo centre positions in the dataset are as accurate as possible given the historical information available.

Notes

Purpose
To provide historical aerial photography photo centres and flight lines with supporting metadata in a downloadable GIS format.