Australian Tagging Guidelines

About

OpenStreetMap's free-text tag structure and emphasis on collaboration over rigid rules empowers local communities to leverage "on-the-ground" knowledge to produce quality maps. While there are Editing standards and established good practice, mapping practices and tagging schemes vary between countries.

Australian mapping practice is generally consistent with global techniques, aided by the Australian Mapping Community's long engagement within the wider global OSM community. These guidelines represent the Australian Mapping Community's consensus on how Australia should be represented in OpenStreetMap, and should be read alongside the other articles on this wiki to help editors keep Australia on the map.

Advice for Newbies

If you are a new editor, welcome! There is a lot of work to do. If you haven't already, check out the Beginners' guide to get a handle on the basics. These guidelines can be daunting when starting but are a lot more intuitive once you've got the hang of it. If you have questions, or just generally need a hand, we are always willing to help.

International Editors

Experienced international editors should find Australia map data to be broadly consistent with global tagging guidelines. Where a guideline differs (or even contradicts) broader practice these points in the tagging guidelines will be clearly identified. If you have questions, or have any problems adapting to the quirks of Australian mapping, get in touch (we don't bite!).

Get Involved

This guidelines are not final! These guidelines reflect the current consensus among the community, but suggestions, improvements, and other feedback is always welcome. Above all else, remember that OpenStreetMap is a collective activity and everyone is working towards the same goal - making the map better.