It is now forty years since the Australian Army commenced using computers in the mapmaking process. The vision and goal, in the early days, were to create topographic information systems designed to meet the geographic information needs of emerging Defence applications; command support systems, decision support systems, navigation and guidance systems, simulation systems, and so on.

A decade ago the author participated in initiatives through which the vision was broadened to embrace a breadth of needs emanating from government policy affecting national development, defence and security (including critical infrastructure protection), emergency management and environmental management.

Yet, today those visions are yet to be realised. Our Geospatial Information Infrastructure (or
Mapping, Charting & Geodesy) capability is a quarter of a century behind where it ought to be from an evolution and capability development perspective.

So why are we in the state that we are in today whereby these 'smart' information systems simply do not exist?

The author of this presentation was a technician working on those early systems and authored innovative papers and presented his views at conferences in Australia and the USA. He has now experienced the entire period of digital mapping in the Australia and has an intimate knowledge of the evolution and now offers his views based on his experience.

This presentation is an odyssey: a review of the origins of digital mapping and GIS through to observations on future trends and challenges confronting our capability.