BLUE MOUNTAINS AIMS HIGH WITH GOOGLE IMAGERY

Imagery from the Blue Mountains National Park is now available on Google Street View in a move that will open up its iconic diverse landscape to the world. Environment Minister Mark Speakman said NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service has also mapped the Ben Boyd, Yuraygir and Gundabooka National Parks, meaning there are now 25 parks across the State with Google Street View.

“Partnering with Google, NPWS has now brought more than 1,100 kilometres of national parks tracks, roads and waterways into homes, offices and mobile phones across the world since late 2014,” Mr Speakman said.

“The panoramic views allow park visitors to research tracks and plan their hikes, while hikers who aren’t able to physically get to a section of a national park can now see lookouts, valleys and gorges via Google Street View
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“Some sections of parks with delicate ecosystems that are closed off to the public have also been carefully mapped, opening up new ways to have an interesting park experience.”

A team of two trekkers walked hundreds of kilometres mapping out a park with a 19 kilogram backpack that creates a 360-degree photo by using 15 cameras, taking photos every three seconds. Other sections accessible by road are mapped using specially modified vehicles or boats.

Google technicians then receive the images and create high resolution three-dimensional images for every step of the park that has been mapped.

The Street View imagery is available to the public via the NSW National Parks website and Google Maps.

Visit nationalparks.nsw.gov.au/google-trekker to view the images.