Atlas of Australian Soils (digital)

The Atlas of Australian Soils (Northcote et al, 1960-68) was compiled by CSIRO in the 1960's to provide a consistent national description of Australia's soils. It comprises a series of ten maps and associated explanatory notes, compiled by K.H. Northcote and others. The maps are published at a scale of 1:2,000,000, but the original compilation was at scales from 1:250,000 to 1:500,000. Mapped units in the Atlas are soil landscapes, usually comprising a number of soil types. The explanatory notes include descriptions of soils landscapes and component soils. Soil classification for the Atlas is based on the Factual Key. The Factual Key (Northcote 1979) was the most widely used soil classification scheme prior to the Australian Soil Classification (Isbell 2002). It dates from 1960 and was essentially based on a set of about 500 profiles largely from south-eastern Australia. It is an hierarchical scheme with 5 levels, the most detailed of which is the principal profile form (PPF). Most of the keying attributes are physical soil characteristics, and can be determined in the field.