(Note that this page can't be edited due to mod_security issues)

While data can be downloaded in an ad hoc manner, if you are regularly processing DEMs, it is better to have the DEM tiles already downloaded.

Once downloaded, pre-process the tiles into GeoTIFFs, build a virtual raster for each 1:100k grid square. You can then build a virtual raster of virtual rasters!

Download tiles by 1:100k map area, which is 0.5 x 0.5 degree squares. Each 1:100k map area ranges from around 2GB to 6GB of data, depending on the number of 2m DEMs vs 1m DEMs, and other factors.

The Sydney basin and Blue Mountains is around 50GB all up.

For example, to request data from ELVIS for the Katoomba 1:100k map area (bounded by -33.5,150,-34,150.5), see the screenshot below, and Select All DEMs:

For reference, below are the 1:100k map areas around Sydney:

And the boundaries:

This script was designed when the DEM files were delivered as doubly zipped .ASC files. As of late 2023, they come as .TIF files, albeit slightly larger files than the process below produced. This means that the steps below are now largely redundant. They are left in place in case people have old datasets that they want to process/reprocess. See below for new steps.

The following may be useful for Windows users.

Below is a Windows Powershell script that will

• move any old DEMs and DEMs from a different zone (you can't mix zones in a virtual raster) to an archive sub-folder
• extract the raw files from the remaining zip files
• convert all of the .ASC files to GeoTIFF
• move the old zip files to a current sub-folder
• zip the current and archive sub-folders to temp.zip
• create a virtual raster (.vrt) file of all of the GeoTiffs

You will need to replace the Environment variables (Path, GDAL_PATH, GDAL_DRIVER_PATH, PROJ_LIB) in the script with your own - see the lines starting with $Env.

Usage is:

.\buildvrt.ps1 <zipFile> <targetFolder>

eg

.\buildvrt.ps1 E:\geodata_raw\DATA_11279.zip E:\geodata\kiama

The .\ is required if you are running the script from your current directory.

buildvrt.ps1

$zipFile=$args[0]
$targetFolder=$args[1]
 
# Unzip files from all subdirectories to new folder
Expand-Archive -LiteralPath $zipFile -DestinationPath $targetFolder
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.zip" -Recurse | Move-Item -Destination $targetFolder
Get-ChildItem -Path $targetFolder -Directory | Remove-Item -Recurse
 
# Create hash of zip files, by name (location, date)
$zipFileList = @{}
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.zip" -Name | ForEach-Object {
	$zipFileList.add($_, @{}) 
	$_ -match '(\d{7})_(\d{2})'
	$zipFileList[$_]['location'] = $Matches.1
	$zipFileList[$_]['zone'] = $Matches.2
	$_ -match '[^_\d](\d{6})'
	$zipFileList[$_]['date'] = $Matches.1
}
# $zipFileList | ConvertTo-Json
 
# Create hash of location (date, name)
$locationList = @{}
$zoneCount = @{}
$zipFileList.keys | ForEach-Object {
	if($locationList[$zipFileList[$_]['location']]) {
		$t = $locationList[$zipFileList[$_]['location']]
		$t.add($zipFileList[$_]['date'],$_)
	} else {
		$t = @{}
		$t.add($zipFileList[$_]['date'],$_)
		$locationList.add($zipFileList[$_]['location'],$t)
	}
	if($zoneCount[$zipFileList[$_]['zone']]) {
		$zoneCount[$zipFileList[$_]['zone']]++
	} else {
		$zoneCount[$zipFileList[$_]['zone']] = 1
	}
}
# $locationList | ConvertTo-Json
# $zoneCount | ConvertTo-Json
 
# Create archive folder
$archiveFolder = "$targetFolder\archive"
If(!(test-path $archiveFolder))
{
      New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $archiveFolder
}
 
# Sort each location by date desc, and move old files to /archive
$locationList.keys | ForEach-Object {
	$i=0
	$locationList[$_].GetEnumerator() | sort key -des | ForEach-Object {
		if ($i -eq 0) {
			$i++
			return}
		else {
			#$_ | ConvertTo-Json
			$s = $_.Value
			Move-Item -Path "$targetFolder\$s" -Destination "$targetFolder\archive\$s"
		}
	}
}
 
# You can't build a VRT with files from a different projection, so
# delete files from outside main zone
# This could probably be altered to include a step to reproject those files
$mainZone = ''
$zoneCount.GetEnumerator() | sort value -des | select -first 1 | ForEach-Object {
	$mainZone = $_.Name
}
 
$zipFileList.keys | ForEach-Object {
	if($zipFileList[$_]['zone'] -ne $mainZone) {
		Remove-Item -Path "$targetFolder\$_"
	}
}
 
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.zip" | Expand-Archive -DestinationPath $targetFolder
$Env:Path += ";C:\OSGEO4~1\apps\Python27\Scripts;C:\OSGEO4~1\bin"
$Env:GDAL_DATA="C:\OSGEO4~1\share\gdal"
$Env:GDAL_DRIVER_PATH="C:\OSGEO4~1\bin\gdalplugins"
$Env:PROJ_LIB="C:\OSGEO4~1\share\proj"
 
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.asc" | ForEach-Object {
	$srcFile = $_.FullName
	$destFile = $_.FullName -replace '.asc', '.tif'
	&"gdal_translate.exe" -of "GTiff" $srcFile $destFile
}
 
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.asc" | Remove-Item -Recurse
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.html" | Remove-Item -Recurse
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.prj" | Remove-Item -Recurse
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.xml" | Remove-Item -Recurse
 
# Create current folder
$currentFolder = "$targetFolder\current"
If(!(test-path $currentFolder))
{
      New-Item -ItemType Directory -Force -Path $currentFolder
}
 
# Move zip files to current folder
Move-Item -Path "$targetFolder\*.zip" -Destination "$currentFolder"
 
# Zip /archive & /current to new zip folder
Compress-Archive -Path "$targetFolder\current", "$targetFolder\archive" -DestinationPath "$targetFolder\temp.zip"
 
# Create 2m vrt
New-Item "$targetFolder\input.txt"
Get-ChildItem -Path "$targetFolder\*.tif" | Add-Content "$targetFolder\input.txt"
&"gdalbuildvrt.exe" -resolution user -tr 2 2 -input_file_list "$targetFolder\input.txt" "$targetFolder\temp.vrt"

You can rename temp.vrt to anything you like, but it needs to stay relative to the GeoTIFF files.

It is possible to then build a larger virtual raster from the individual 1:100k virtual rasters. Note that larger rasters need to have the same projection. Also keep in mind that not all data is at 2m resolution.

As of late 2023, data extracts are provided in a single zipped file with folders for each resolution (1m/2m/5m), with .TIF files in each folder.

Extract all files into a single folder.

These .TIF files have a file format like: Penrith201904-LID1-AHD_2806276_56_0002_0002_1m.tif

The '56' refers to the Zone. Different zones can't be mixed when creating a virtual raster, so any files with a different zone will need to be deleted or moved to another directory.

If the GDAL binaries are in your path, you can then run the following two commands in the folder at the (Windows) command line:

dir /b *.tif > input.txt
gdalbuildvrt.exe -resolution user -tr 2 2 -input_file_list input.txt area.vrt

MacOS and Linux users will need to convert these commands for their own use.

The area.vrt file is now a virtual raster of all of the other files.

It is possible to then build a larger virtual raster from the individual 1:100k virtual rasters. Note that larger rasters need to have the same projection. Also keep in mind that not all data is at 2m resolution.

Loading up a large virtual raster into QGIS can be very slow, as can manipulating it. However, you can quickly load up a smaller section of the map using the following steps:

• create the boundary of your desired area using the polygon tool at https://maps.ozultimate.com/
• download the polygon using the Export drawn data to GeoJSON function
• load up the Python console (Plugins→Python Console or Ctrl+Alt+P on Windows) in QGIS
• run the following command (replace file locations with your own - the INPUT should be your virtual raster, and the MASK should be your GeoJSON boundary polygon)

resultClip = processing.runAndLoadResults("gdal:cliprasterbymasklayer", { 'ALPHA_BAND' : False, 'CROP_TO_CUTLINE' : True, 'DATA_TYPE' : 0, 'EXTRA' : '', 'INPUT' : 'E:/geodata/8930_katoomba/area.vrt', 'KEEP_RESOLUTION' : False, 'MASK' : 'C:/Users/Downloads/data.geojson', 'MULTITHREADING' : False, 'NODATA' : None, 'OPTIONS' : '', 'OUTPUT' : 'TEMPORARY_OUTPUT', 'SET_RESOLUTION' : False, 'SOURCE_CRS' : None, 'TARGET_CRS' : None, 'X_RESOLUTION' : None, 'Y_RESOLUTION' : None })

If you are trying to process data near zone boundaries, you may run into issues where the tiles are of multiple projections. Virtual rasters run into numerous issues in this scenario. Even if you translate the data from one projection to the other, you will hit issues with pixel sizes, and pixel starting points.

The best approach so far seems to be to

• clip each raster to a modest size
• reproject one file to the other CRS (projection)
• merge the two files, with
  • the un-reprojected one first
  • the -tap flag set
  • and possibly the -ps flag as well

You can then use this merged raster for operations around the zone boundaries.