QImagery contains Historical Aerial Photography captured since the 1930's and the QSat 2017 240cm Planet Q3 satellite imagery.
As the aerial film digitisation project progresses, images will be updated as available.
Quality
Historical Aerial Photography available through QImagery under open licencing is down sampled to 400dpi to enhance ease of access (bandwidth) at a minor loss of imagery quality.
The resolution varies according to the flying height of the aircraft for a particular project.
The Historical Aerial Photography images viewable in the QImagery web application have been geo-located via an algorithm that rotates and scales each photograph to approximate size, based on the recorded geographical position of the photograph’s centroid (central point).
The centroids may have been digitised direct from key diagrams that may have been incorrectly produced in the first instance, or hand-drawn to varying levels of accuracy. On occasion this could result in photographs being displayed in QImagery out of position, or rotated and scaled incorrectly.
In addition, each raw photographic image contains distortions, particularly around the edges, which is a common artefact of camera lenses and the photographic process.
The Department intends to progress rectification of the Historical Aerial Photography which, through a rigorous geometric rectification process, will enable the accurate overlay of other spatial datasets.
The Department welcomes feedback on corrections to the location and incorrect display of Historical Aerial Photography in QImagery.
The Home page consists of a map with various map-related tools and a banner running down the left-hand side of the application. The banner is host to four functions:
Search
Images
Help
Contact Us
The map-related tools for zoom-in () and zoom-out () are in the bottom right corner, along with a tool to locate your current position (). Depending on the device, scrolling the mouse wheel or pinching the screen can also be used to change the scale, i.e. zoom-in or zoom-out. The tools for resetting the keymap and scrolling through previous views () can be found in the top-left corner of the page.
There is a choice of three styles for the map; Streets, Imagery or Topographic. The style of map can be found in the bottom left corner of the map ().
The coordinates for the location of the cursor in Latitude/Longitude format, the scale of the map and the data sources for the map data can be found beneath the map style dialogue box.
The banner is host to four functions; Search, Images, Help and Customer Feedback.
Clicking the QImagery title at the top of the page will return the application to the Welcome page.
Search
To obtain a list of available images over a location requires a two-step process:
Find Location
Search comprises six options for the user to locate or define their area of interest. Click the Search icon (magnifying glass) in the banner to access the options. The icon will turn blue. In most cases the description is self-explanatory:
Locality, town or city
Auto-complete functionality is in operation.
Point or shape
There are four geometries available to the user; search at a point, search along a line, search within a rectangle and search within a polygon. To assist the user a tool tip will display on clicking each of the tools, i.e.:
Search by Point – click or tap to add a point
Search by Line – press down to start and let go to finish
Search by Rectangle – press down to start and let go to finish
Search by Polygon – click or tap to start drawing, double-click or double-tap to finish
Address
It must be a current address. Auto-complete functionality is in operation.
Lot and Plan
It must be a current cadastral description.
Latitude and longitude
All Search options have prompts and examples specific to their attributes.
Prior to activating a search, date and scale filters can be applied that narrows the search parameters to
reduce the number of results returned. Click the Advanced Options button
()
to access the date and scale filters. A number of options are available such as predetermined date
ranges and scales, as well as the ability to define custom values. The scale ranges for the predetermined
options are:
Region: >= 70000
City: < 7000 and >= 30000
Neighbourhood: < 30000 and >= 15000
Street: < 15000
A buffer distance can also be added to the search geometry selected, e.g. a 1000m buffer around the selected locality.
The Search can be activated by clicking <Return> or clicking the magnifying glass icon () in each Search option. Search criteria can be cleared by clicking the clear icon () in each Search option.
A successful search will return at least one result. Select the appropriate result to locate and zoom to the feature on the map. The selected feature will be highlighted in blue dependent upon the geometry of the feature.
The Search options can be restored by clicking in the blue banner.
The Search options can be hidden by clicking the Search icon which has changed to blue. ()
Obtain List of Images
When the defined area of interest has been located a search for images can be activated by clicking the Search button beside the selected location.
The Clear button will return to the Search option to allow a revised input to be inserted.
Prior to initiating the search, parameters relating to the criteria; date of flying and scale of the imagery, can be configured in the Advanced Options menu. A buffer distance in metres can also be input to extend the search extent surrounding the area of interest. The selected layer for the search is Qld. Aerial Photographs. To reset the Advanced Options select All Layers.
Images
The Images icon changes to blue.
A list of images grouped by projects in tabs will be returned, along with the number of images over the selected feature or search area.
The extent of the selected feature or search area will be highlighted in green.
Return to the Search menu by clicking the Search icon (click the Image icon to return to the Images).
The list of projects is sorted by date, most recent to oldest, by scale largest to smallest (i.e. smallest ratio to greatest ratio), in alphabetic order A to Z.
Click the menu button () in the top right corner of project tab to reveal options to Show Outlines () (i.e. footprints of the images) and to zoom to () the full extent of the images in the project that cover the selected feature or search area. Any projects that have the footprints turned on will have the icon () in the top right corner of project tab shaded blue.
Click the project tab and the list of images will cascade. Attributes relating to the project and each image will be displayed.
Click the Licence icon to display the licence conditions for the images within the project. You will be directed to an external website.
Viewing Image Footprints
When the Show Outlines options is checked () the image footprints will become visible (outlined in dotted red). Uncheck the box to make them invisible.
The footprint will highlight in solid red during hovering by the pointing device, e.g. mouse, finger, etc. The corresponding record in the listing will also highlight shaded blue. The footprint will also highlight in red when the corresponding record in the listing is hovered over by the pointing device, e.g. mouse, finger, etc.
Clicking a footprint in the map will open the project that the image belongs to and scrolls to the record in the list. The record will highlight in blue and blink for 5 seconds.
Viewing Images
Click the View button () to view the image on the map.
Click the Zoom To button () to zoom to the full extent of the image.
Below the box in the top right corner of project tab is an eye icon (). The number beside the icon indicates the number of images viewable for that project on the map.
Images from different projects can be viewed at the same time. The ordering of the images, i.e. which ones are on top or bottom, can be performed by turning the images on or off through the use of the View button.
Downloading Images
Click the Download button ()
to download the image and/or associated World File on the map to device being used.
For Historical Aerial Photography initiate the download by selecting the Raster Image or World File (Coordinates) options.
For the QSat 2017 240cm Planet Q3 satellite imagery initiate the download by selecting the TIFF (georeferenced) or JPEG (not georeferenced) options.
Only one image or World File can be downloaded at one time.
The operation and look and feel of the download function is dependent upon the internet browser being used.
The format of the World File is specific to Esri ArcGIS.
For GIS applications that require the input of a Projection/Coordinate Reference System (CRS) use Web Mercator which is also referred to as EPSG:3857 or WGS84/Pseudo Mercator.
The Historical Aerial Photographs will display “clipped” without the full frames to create a
virtual, seamless mosaic effect. However, the downloaded images will show the full frame with additional
information such as photo identification, run number, datum etc.
Using Downloaded Images
Images downloaded from QImagery must be acknowledged when used. Images downloaded are made available with
either a Creative Commons by Attribution licence (CC-BY), Creative Commons by Attribution-ShareAlike
(CC BY-SA) licence or a Public Domain use right (where government or commercial copyright has expired).
When publishing it is requested to acknowledge the original owner: State of Queensland, Commonwealth of
Australia (Geoscience Australia), Brisbane City Council (BCC Film Numbers), or AAM Group Pty Ltd (Brisbane
1936 photography).
Contact Us
Click the Envelope icon () in the banner on the bottom left of the screen to access the email form to provide
feedback and comments.
Department of Resources' Imagery Role and Responsibilities, Recent Imagery Discovery and Access
For information on the Spatial Imagery Subscription Plan, access to recent orthophotography data, or access to
the high resolution Historical Aerial Photography, visit the
Queensland Government’s Business and Industry portal.
Tips and Tricks
A maximum limit of 1000 image records applies to results from a search. If this limit is reached the
following message will be displayed:
“The maximum number of images has been exceeded. Not all of the projects covering this area may
be included in the result. Please narrow your search using filters or search using a smaller
area.”
Whilst a list of Projects and images will accompany this warning, the listing is incomplete for both the
number of Projects and the images for each Project.
The operation and look and feel of the download function is dependent upon the device and internet browser used.
When images from multiple Projects with different scales are displayed in the map there will be
differences noticed with both the extent of the coverage of the images and the clarity of the detail when
zooming in.
Click QImagery above the map to return to the Welcome Page.
Search
Images
Help
Contact Us
) and zoom-out (
) are in the bottom right corner, along with a tool to locate your current position (
). Depending on the device, scrolling the mouse wheel or pinching the screen can also be used to change the scale, i.e. zoom-in or zoom-out. The tools for resetting the keymap and scrolling through previous views (
) can be found in the top-left corner of the page.
).
Search by Point – click or tap to add a point
Search by Line – press down to start and let go to finish
Search by Rectangle – press down to start and let go to finish
Search by Polygon – click or tap to start drawing, double-click or double-tap to finish
)
to access the date and scale filters. A number of options are available such as predetermined date
ranges and scales, as well as the ability to define custom values. The scale ranges for the predetermined
options are:
) in each Search option. Search criteria can be cleared by clicking the clear icon (
) in each Search option.
)
) in the top right corner of project tab to reveal options to Show Outlines (
) (i.e. footprints of the images) and to zoom to (
) the full extent of the images in the project that cover the selected feature or search area. Any projects that have the footprints turned on will have the icon (
) in the top right corner of project tab shaded blue.
) the image footprints will become visible (outlined in dotted red). Uncheck the box to make them invisible.
) to view the image on the map.
) to zoom to the full extent of the image.
). The number beside the icon indicates the number of images viewable for that project on the map.
)
to download the image and/or associated World File on the map to device being used.
