In
Places, I have just posted 8 or so Locked Gates in the Brindabella Nat Park in NSW. Locked gates are not very interesting but they are damned annoying when you reach one after some considerable time only to have to turn around and go back.
In the case of Brindabella NP, which I recently visited, NSW NPWS rangers have told me that access to/from the park via northern routes has been closed off because they all involve passage through private property and the land owners have jacked up. Small scale maps such as the Australian 250K series and
EOTopo generally don't show gates. Larger scale maps may do, but not necessarily. The point is, the absence of a
gate on a map doesn't mean there's no
gate!
I have a suggestion for users of Traveller in particular, but also any service-minded folk in the EO community....
If you come across a
locked gate (permanently locked, seasonally locked, etc) on a track that is open to the public, register the
gate as a Public Place. In Traveller it is easy - you can do it at the
gate you've just found. Other users of other navigators will have to note the coordinates and create the place manually in EO
Places when they get internet service.
That way already great EO products are enhanced and users of Traveller and researchers using
EOTopo on line will get fair warning of locked-off tracks.
You don't have to do it on
the spot. I took the Brindabella info off a NSW NPWS park map in a
campground. I took a photo of the map and transposed the gates into Traveller when I got
home.
Just my thoughts on how Users and Members can enhance an already great resource.