Our history

PSMA Australia Limited is a company owned by state, territory and Australian governments, established to coordinate the collection of fundamental national geospatial datasets and to facilitate access to this data.

We started out as a government consortium, formed in 1993 to create an integrated national digital base-map for the 1996 National Census. Following the success of this base-map, it was made available for commercial use. It is now used in a range of highly successful products produced by the private sector.

PSMA Australia brings together the supply and demand sides of the market place, which stimulates the private sector and ensures access by the public to contemporary and appropriate geographical information.

We have established a national framework to focus the combined mapping resources of Australian, state and territory government agencies. The policies, standards and operational techniques of these agencies are different, as are their levels of sophistication and advancement, so part of our role is to help their disparate data resources mesh, cooperate and function uniformly to create high-quality products.

The Board of PSMA Australia comprises senior public servants from each of the state and territory governments and the Australian Government. The board meets four times a year. Between meetings, the Executive Committee, comprising the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and Marketing Director, provides the linkage for the CEO to the board.

The board maintains a three-year strategic plan for the organisation as well as an annual program that contemplates all activities to be undertaken within a financial year.

The PSMA Australia National Office operates as the hub of relationship management between data custodians, data managers and clients. Our National Office out-sources all of its operations beyond its critical relationship and contract management functions.

To learn more, download a copy of A Concise History of PSMA Australia, authored by Mr Martin Holmes.