Chairman's Foreword

2011 is a special year for PSMA Australia, as it commemorates ten years of operation and achievement as Australia's provider of authoritative location information and services.

Since its establishment as an unlisted public company in 2001, PSMA Australia has been focused on bringing together authoritative government information, expert technical partners and specialist resellers to deliver quality digital mapping products for the private and government sectors as well as the community.

In the preparation undertaken for the 2011 Census, we are also reminded of PSMA Australia's earlier origins as a joint venture between Australia's government mapping agencies to provide a national street-level digital map database to support the 1996 Census. This involved a significant milestone in Australia's mapping history – the integration of Australia's first multi-resolution, digital, national topographic dataset.

In the last few years, PSMA Australia has focused on establishing significant technical capability through investments in processes, technology and infrastructure. These activities are consistent with the global trend that has seen a shift from data as a product to data as a service.

Our aim with this investment has been to create an environment that can efficiently deliver new data products and higher quality updates more frequently. This involves establishing a services orientated environment that can be utilised by others within the value chain to more easily access and extract value from the data.

The successful completion of the European cadastral pilot for EuroGeographics in May 2011 provides strong evidence that we are now well positioned to process any geospatial dataset with PSMA Systems – arguably another significant milestone in Australia's mapping heritage.

As PSMA Australia enters its second decade as a company, I believe that this year will see significant change to the way governments approach geospatial information. There are many activities underway that point to a significant shift in the management and use of geospatial information within the Australian Government with a clear focus on the management of information spatially. PSMA Australia is well placed to play a central role by assisting the Australian Government in achieving this outcome.

Over the years, we have developed an excellent and dedicated team comprising committed Directors and an experienced CEO and staff. I eagerly await what the next 12 months has in store for us all.

Ollie Hedberg AM
Chairman of the Board
PSMA Australia Limited

Back to top

Next >