1. In the late 1970s, the author was given the opportunity to study cartography and computing science integration at the Canberra College of Advanced Education (now University of Canberra). There, he learned about developing digital mapping applications from his lecturer Waldemar Wassermann. 2. In 1980, the author wrote a discussion paper called "Defence Enquiry System" that proposed a geographic information system for defense applications like tracking personnel and equipment. He also worked on a mapping application called MAPPACK that demonstrated options for education and navigation uses. 3. MAPPACK allowed users to generate different map projections and manipulate continents to simulate plate tectonics. It also produced specialized maps for navigation including strip

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It was 40+ years ago!
Reflections of One of Australia’s Military Mapmakers
(SPR / CPL / SGT / SSGT / LT / CAPT / MAJ / DR)
Robert (Bob) Williams
Cartographic Information Systems – DES and MAPPACK:
Then wait; there’s more!
In December 1976 the Director of Survey of Survey-Army (COL
Jim Stedman) gave me the opportunity to undertake Long Term
Schooling at the Canberra College of Advanced Education (CCAE)
– now the University of Canberra.
The course was unique in that it addressed the challenge of
integrating cartography and computing science courses. This
revolutionary change could only be achieved through a ‘visionary’
and experienced professional.
Waldemar (Wally) Wassermann was appointed as Senior Lecturer
in Cartography in 1972 following national and international
advertisements that attracted him from the Geodetic Research
Institute, Frankfurt, where he had been engaged in the application
of satellite imagery to computer mapping. He had worked
previously in Australia as the Chief Surveyor of the Snowy
Mountains Authority.
Wally was promoted in 1977 to the position of Principal Lecturer in
Surveying and Cartography. He was responsible for setting up a
cartographer major which stressed techniques of computer
mapping and photogrammetry. He also established a
programme leading to a three-year bachelor’s degree in surveying.
Wally was renowned for the very high standards expected from his
students. His graduates included many of the staff of AUSLIG
(Australian Land Information Group – now within Geoscience
Australia), the Royal Australian Survey Corps (disbanded in 1996),
the image analysis section of military intelligence (which was
actually Detachment to JIO from Directorate of Survey-Army
(RASVY)), several academic appointments and a number of public
servants in South Australia, Queensland and Northern Territory. All
would value the guidance provided by Wally in understanding the
transition from analogue to digital representation of data.
I was asked, on completion of my course, to write a discussion
paper on where I thought the corps should be heading by DSVY-A
(COL John Hillier). I would call this paper “DES”.

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DES – March 1980
The paper, titled “A Defence Enquiry System (DES)”, is a re-typed
copy of the original paper with scanned copies of the original
illustrations (see link at end of this document).
I introduced the paper with a quote by Elbert Hubbard circa 1890:
“The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it
can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it!”
The paper included geographic information required by a defence
oriented information system; as for:
• The movement of personnel, equipment and supplies;
• The establishment of communications;
• And other applications.
The discussion paper suggested that types of queries for a
Defence Enquiry System might take the form:
• Show the location of 4FD REGT, RAA;
• List all airfields capable of taking C130 aircraft and located
in1MD;

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• Show details of all bridges along the Stuart Highway
between Pine Creek and Katherine;
• What is the status (trafficability) of the Bruce Highway
between Tully and Cairns today?
The paper noted that applications would include:
• “Terrain analysis. DES may be able to graphically show
terrain characteristics. These characteristics could include
three-dimensional profile maps, line of sight profiles, line
perspective views, line oblique views, and shaded
perspective views.
• Object recognition. Today’s ortho-photomap may be
replaced by a digital image, perhaps similar to LANDSAT
images, and various features highlighted or classified. It
might also be feasible that digital terrestrial cameras of the
future could be used to identify features (possibly with the
help of symbol tables and definitions).
• Shortest path algorithms. If DES’s data base has roads
digitally recorded with a structure of nodes and links between
nodes, then shortest route algorithms can be implemented
(for example using the A* algorithm)”.
Raphael, Bertram (1976). The Thinking Computer:
Mind Inside Matter, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco
MAPPACK
MAPPACK was the name of an application program developed at
the CCAE. This program was part of a project of special studies
within the undergraduate course in Computing and Cartography.
MAPPACK demonstrated options that may be applicable to a
cartographic data base enquiry system. The options in this
initial version are applicable to cartographic education and
possible navigational applications.

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MAPPACK was discussed in
“An Overview of a Cartographic Mapping
Package”
CARTOGRAPHY Volume 11 No.3 March 1980.
(A link to a copy is at the end of this document).
“Until the Age of Automation, thematic cartographers were posed
with the problem of whether to use currently available maps as
bases for their particular purposes or whether to embark on what
might be a lengthy and involved task to produce their desired map
bases. The available maps might be restricted by the area
covered, by the types of projection required, by limited ranges of
scale, or by inadequacies of detail for conveying the objectives.
The Age of Automation has made the second alternative now more
feasible. Any geographic feature digitally represented in a data
base is now accessible and may be rotated, transformed and
scaled to produce the desired output”.
The cartographic mapping package developed at the CCAE as an
undergraduate topic in the unit Special Studies in Computing
within the course for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts in Computing
Studies attempted to demonstrate these characteristics.
The cartographic mapping package utilizes a number of concepts:
• Firstly, the creation of a hierarchical data base enables a
number of relatively small direct access disk files to be used
for planning and initial assessment mapping purposes while
the detailed data base (World Data Base II (WDB2) tape file)
is only used when more detail is actually required.
• Secondly, the use of a communication module, which
requests only the minimum number of parameters for a
particular task, provides the user with an easy and simple
way of inputting his requirements.
• Thirdly, the use of automatic scaling, positioning, rotation
and point selection permits users with little technical
knowledge to still use the College’s Geographic Information
Processing System (GIPS) for output to various devices
means that only GIPS needs to be amended if a new output
terminal is acquired instead of the applications being
modified.

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MAPPACK had two areas of application:
• Education; and
• Navigation.
Education
The ‘Atlas’ mapping option and the ‘Pre-History’ mapping option
could be used to demonstrate geographical areas in studying
applied geography, cartography, and ‘pre-history’ type subjects.
• Atlas applications. MAPPACK included ten map projections:
Orthographic; Stereographic; Gnomonic; Postel (Azimuthal
Equidistant); Perspective; Mercator; Lambert’s Cylindrical
Equivalent; Bonne; Sanson - Flamsteed; and Mollweide.
• Pre-History. This option is a fairly simple approach to
mapping continental movement. Continents may be shifted
and rotated. This demonstrates an interesting aspect of
computer mapping and could feasibly be expanded to show
more realistic effects.
My senior lecturer, Waldemar (Waldo or Wally) Wassermann,
suggested that it would be possible to rotate continents and move
the continents to fit adjoining landmasses thereby SIMULATING
CONTINENTAL DRIFT (plate tectonics).
Navigation
The navigation application provided a powerful mapping tool by
producing highly specialized maps of specific areas of interest.
Options included the following:
• Strip map. For great circle route mapping the user requests
the STRIP map option and enters the required region, e.g.
LONDON TO SYDNEY. Up to five intermediate places may
be requested. The user is required to specify the direction,
i.e. west to east or east to west, and the map scale that may
be a specific scale or a particular page size format, e.g. A4.
The result is a strip map, or maps, between the places
selected and having the same scale.
• Bearing and Distance Maps. This option is accessed via
the ATLAS style map selection. This map may be centered
on any point on the Earth’s surface and is available on a
global basis or to a specific radial distance. Bearing and
distance is true from the centre of the map.

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• Distance to Coastline. This option calculates the bearing
and great circle distance to the nearest point on a coastline
of a major land feature.
The geographic data base for the cartographic mapping package
was World Data Bank. WDB2 was a cartographic data base
developed in the United States of America and contained
approximately 6,000,000 coordinate pairs in approximately 30,000
line segments.
These coordinates outlining natural and man-made features of the
world were in five distinct storage areas: North America; South
America and Antarctica; Europe; Africa and Asia.
WDB2 had a classification/ranking system to denote hierarchy
among features within the individual files.
These features and subordinate classifications/ranks as coded in
WDB2 were as follows: Coastlines, islands and lakes (CIL); Rivers
(RIV); International boundaries (BDY); and In the case of North
America a fourth file (PDY) further delineates the states of the USA
and the provinces of Canada.

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Applications within MAPPACK were
presented in
“Automated Cartography with
Navigational Applications”
Fourth Australian Cartographic
Conference, Hobart, November 1980.
(A link to a copy is at the end of this
document).
The presentation included topics in the Cartography journal article
“An Overview of a Cartographic Mapping Package” plus innovative
topics – oblique aspect mapping and user communication.
Wally had a mate who was an airline pilot. Wally and his mate
believed that one day long-haul flights would be travelling on ‘Great
Circle’ paths.
But how do we calculate the path and represent it as a straight line?

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MAPPACK was able to produce a Strip map. This is a windowed
oblique aspect Mercator projection map centered along the great
circle route between two nominated places. This requires
rigorous half-angle spherical trigonometry.
Wally was far from being a traditional lecturer. He believed that
education should be an enlightening experience. So, he gave me
a four page article written in German and a few days to work
through the formulae. He told me that I was to understand the
formulae – a unique approach!
CLIP OF ARTICLE
Example - LONDON to SYDNEY and to fit on an A4 page.
Calculation of strip mapping parameters. The strip mapping
option uses half-angle spherical trigonometry to calculate
parameters. The procedure requires only two sets of geographical
coordinates.
Input parameters are:

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a. Departure latitude (θ1)
b. Departure longitude (λ1)
c. Destination latitude (θ2)
d. Destination longitude (λ2)
Calculated output parameters are;
a. Latitude of new north pole (θ0)
b. Longitude of new north pole (λ0)
c. Great circle distance (Dist)
d. Departure bearing (α1)
e. Destination bearing (α2)
Sphere rotation. For all oblique aspect tasks, the reference globe
needs rotating. For example, the centre point on an azimuthal
projection is deemed to be the new (or false) north pole.
MAPPACK performs a rotation for all oblique aspect tasks before
applying the required projection formula.
Input parameters are:
a. Latitude of new north pole (θ0)
b. Longitude of new north pole (λ0)
c. Latitude of required point on the original globe (θ)
d. Longitude of required point on the original globe (λ)
Output parameters are:
a. Computed new latitude position of the point (θnew)
b. Computed new longitude position of the point (λnew)
Software was written in Burroughs Extended ALGOL computer
language.

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Interactive communication. MAPPACK’s interactive
communication is via an English-style question and answer
routine. The program uses free format and unformatted read
statements and uses character handling procedures to assess the
requirements. The program actually uses a small user language
comprising program statements.
Possible developments. An obvious extension of the ideas
described previously is to create a computer-based
CARTOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM. With such a system
it must be possible to retrieve information from files and data
bases with the minimum use of resources.
This requires that:
• the user be provided with some language which allows the
user to specify retrieval requests. This language may take
the form of embedded statements in an existing language or
it may be a special language which is used solely for
information retrieval.
• the information be structured in a way such that the user
requests, which are specified in terms of the language
syntax, are retrieved using the minimum amount of
resources. This latter implies that the requests for
information be satisfied with a minimum number of disk
input/output transfers.
A further extension is to expand the processing modules to enable
the user to access more types of maps. Example applications
might include shortest path route maps, automatic coastal
navigation maps, digital terrain models, etc.

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Language Definition. A cartographic enquiry language may,
possibly, be defined as:
This is read as: a request is defined as an instruction followed by
a type of map, optionally followed by a location and optionally
followed by a scale.
As an example, type of map would defined as:
As an example, location would defined as:
Conclusion. The paper discussed applications with specific
reference to navigational aspects. It looked at user communication,
data base structure, data retrieval, and data manipulation.
The theme of the paper was to analyse the task – in this case to
provide navigational mapping – and not to merely examine and try
to automate (simulate) conventional cartographic procedures.
TYPE OF MAP
Strip Navigation
Area Navigation
Network

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Then wait; there’s more! It’s still 1980.
On completion of my long time study at CCAE I was attached to
the Directorate of Survey-Army awaiting promotion. In that time I
assembled a folder of plots produced on CCAE’s Burroughs B6700
computer. The plots were Azimuthal Equidistant and Oblique
Mercator projections.
During the same period I wrote my DES paper.
I was then posted to The Royal
Australian Survey Corps’ Army Survey
Regiment at Bendigo, Victoria. I was
Officer in Charge Aeronautical Charting
troop and Acting 2IC and Production
Manager in Cartographic Squadron.
I wrote software in FORTRAN for use on a HP2100A computer.
The program was designed to re-align en Route Charts (ERC) as
in the illustration below.

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Derivative mapping. The first, and only ever, 1;250,000 map -
SE51-3 YAMPI - was produced from source digital data of the
1:50,000 maps compiled by stereo-photogrammetric techniques
during June – August 1980.
Yampi was a digital mapping experience!
Unfortunately our vision was constrained by the technology of the
day. The disk storage on the Input Sub-System was 5 x 5mB disk
platters.
We, also, had the vision of being able the produce hill-shading
using analytical processes. Contours and spot height were sent
over the phone line to CSIRO in Canberra. A raster hill-shading
image was sent back overnight. Unfortunately, failures in
transmission were just too much! But, we had a try!

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The Yampi map included a “back-up” brochure. The brochure
included ‘The AUTOMAP System’; ‘The Production Path of a
Topographic Map’; and ‘Some Applications of the Database’.
The brochure includes a description of the Data Base and the
introduction of Map Feature Codes. (Note: this is the third in a
series of “Back Ups”.

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‘Some Applications of the Database’ include:
THE YEAR WAS 1980!

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Returning to the quote by Elbert Hubbard (circa 1890),
sadly that has not happened!
References:
Vision and Imagination 1976-84
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bob-williams-
a1b067126/overlay/education/365861934/multiple-media-
viewer/?treasuryMediaId=1635457040864
Defence Enquiry System (DES)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bob-williams-
a1b067126/details/experience/1228731728/multiple-media-
viewer/?treasuryMediaId=1526453470268
An Overview of a Cartographic Mapping Package (MAPPACK)
https://www.slideshare.net/RobertBobWilliams/an-overview-of-a-
cartographic-package
Automated Cartography with Navigational Applications
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-bob-williams-
a1b067126/details/experience/1228731728/multiple-media-
viewer/?treasuryMediaId=1526453911722