I’m a bit of a Melways nerd. I got a new (2010) edition for my birthday. They’re no fools, the people at Ausway, putting the new edition out in time for Father’s Day (which in Australia is the first Sunday in September).
My 2006 edition will go into the car (where it may get a little beaten up), and the 2002 will be retired.
Looking through the new one, some of the things caught my eye, mainly things that have recently changed, or are marked in even though they haven’t changed yet:
- 358 G7 — Caroline Springs Station proposed
- 48 F10 — Nunawading railway crossing removed, and new station built; this won’t actually happen until January
- 88 J6 — Dingley Freeway under construction
- 183 B11 — South Morang Station proposed (but now it’s actually happening)
- 179 F1 — the mysterious E14 expressway has morphed into Aitken Boulevard
- 103 C7 — Peninsula Link being built — byebye to the amusingly named Pobblebonk Wetland Reserve
- 215 D6 — Cardinia Station proposed
- 203 J11 — Point Cook Station proposed, though I gather it’ll actually be called Williams Landing
- 2E C2 — shows the Wheel (without the bits chopped out of it, as it looks now) and Costco
- 2F B9 — I didn’t know Crown’s western entrance was in fact called the “Western Porte Cochere”
- 2H D11 — weirdarse street numbers in Madden Grove, Burnley
- 2P B4 — tram 3a correctly shown in Fitzroy Street
- tram 48 change to Collins Street, which will happen later in September
At some stage surely they have to re-do the page numbers. It’s such a mess at the moment, with anything outside the original edition’s pages out of whack, sometimes severely.
12 replies on “Melway nerdery”
I think that the map numbering scheme is pretty much stuck on now and would be very difficult to change ….
At one point I bought a Sydway as I preferred the mapping style however found it next to useless as no-one in Sydney was using it and always insisted on giving me a Gregories reference for wherever we were going at the time … Sydneysiders have the same issue here but in reverse …
In order to combat this I was working on street directory coordinate transform tool – take a few key points in the map layout and fix those in space with absolute GPS coordinates then it would be pretty easy to translate between eg, Gregories and Melways or even Melways of differing revisions if they do end up doing a map renumbering … worked out the back-end details but didn’t bother finishing it as to be honest it didn’t seem to be a major issue for people … :)
You’re not suggesting my 1995 edition might be ever-so-slightly out of date? lol
As I long time Melway nerd myself I often look at the changes between editions too. I noticed with the 2010 edition that a few changes hadn’t caught up with government proposals. Specifically:
• the Outer Ring Road (ORR) proposal hasn’t appeared as a proposed freeway, despite a concept design existing, like those for the other proposed freeways (hence interchange layouts appear in dotted green)
• From the above the mysterious E6 is still shown as a proposed (Primary) arterial road and not a freeway adjoining the ORR. There is room reserved for interchanges
• Proposed Tarneit link rail line not yet appearing on maps
• Proposed Caulfield Footscray tunnel route not yet appearing
• South Morang now proposed station, named
• The North East (F18) link not appearing on the blue maps, but can be seen dotted in light green on some of the larger scale maps
• Mornington Peninsula Freeway (Peninsula Link) not yet dark green dotted as is the norm for under construction
Interestingly the main key map at the front of the Melway has shown the Healesville Freeway dotted in for the last few years but nothing on smaller maps. They usually only do this when construction is imminent but to the best of my knowledge there mare no plans to do so, apart from it probably being on a wish list for Connect East.
The only bit of the Dingley Freeway to be built is a useless at-grade section in the reservation joining up the two other bits they have built.
I agree fully on the map numbering problem. The outer suburbs are terrible. Especially the outer west where you have to flick forward a couple of hundered pages to get the adjoining map to the one near Deer Park or Laverton for example!
I guess the “Western Porte Cochere” is where all the wankers enter from.
The Pobblebonk is a type of frog just for future reference. Their call sounds like a kind of cartoon “bonk”
Malcolm, yes it would be messy, as many businesses quote a Melway reference. But the continued problems with navigating around the outer suburbs, jumping all over the place to find the different pages, really should be fixed. With the newer directories (including Sydway I think?) they’ve sensibly left gaps in the page numbers for future expansion.
Lynn, there’s an eastern and southern one too! See the map here.
Jus, thanks! I did wonder. Hope the pobblebonks won’t be endangered by this.
Blasphemy Daniel. They can’t change the map numbers. I have decades of map numbers for different areas stored in my brain.
I saw you on the ABC tonight!
As Andrew S says he definitely is a Melway nerd! Back at school, we used to call him the “Human Melway” ! He also mentioned the Dingley Freeway- I know this in particular is a pet peeve of his, as he has a personal reason for it! I wonder if he’d care to explain to everyone else- it certainly is valid!!
Isn’t it funny how people will hang on to the same Melway for years- I only just recently updated to the 2010 edition from the 2001 version! Considering all the updates in that time, one would update regularly, but I suppose it’s one of those things!
I agree- they can’t change the map/page designation, it is convention! Besides, how many people live in Timbuktu or whatever the new maps cover!
To be pedantic, map 107 was introduced in edition 3 and fits perfectly.
G’day Daniel.
Just thought I’d point you to a litle light reading about Pobblebonks.
(1) The informal names for this species are Western Banjo Frog, Pobblebonk, Sand frog and Bullfrog. It is one of the endemic amphibians of Western Australia. [1][2] For more detail visit the URL below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnodynastes_dorsalis
(2) The informal names for this species, and its subspecies, include Eastern or Southern Banjo Frog, and Bull frog.[1] The frog is also called the pobblebonk after its distinctive “bonk” call, which is likened to a banjo string being plucked. It is native to eastern Australia and has been introduced to New Zealand. There are five subspecies of L. dumerilii, each with different skin colouration. For more detail see the URL below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnodynastes_dumerilii
(3) The Northern Banjo Frog (Limnodynastes terraereginae) is a species of ground-dwelling burrowing frog native to eastern Queensland and northeastern New South Wales, Australia. … There is red-orange or scarlet markings in the thigh and flanks, which gives this species it other common name, the Scarlet-sided Pobblebonk. For more detail visit the URL below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limnodynastes_terraereginae
As far as I could see, although I admit I didn’t read the complete articles, they each mentioned that the name pobblebonk came from the call of the frog. However, none of them explained that the frogs tend to occur in quite large groups and that when a male frog sounds his call he is usually answered by any number of other individuals. It is the repetition of the “bonk” sound that ends up sounding like “pobblebonk”.
Just thought you’d like to know that ;-)
Sorry, should have put quotes around the (1), (2) and (3) paragraphs.