Historical charts, soundings and surfaces (DEMs) of western Victoria, Australia

This data repository hosts the georeferenced nautical charts, digitised soundings, converted soundings (Australian Height Datum 1994), surface masks and interpolated surfaces (DEMs) of seven historical surveys conducted in western Victoria during the 19th century. These charts produced by H. J. Stanley, J. Barrow and J. B Mason for Portland Bay (1854, 1869 and 1972), Port Fairy (1870), Lady Bay-Warrnambool (1870) and Apollo Bay (1868 and 1889), were obtained in digital format from the State Library Victoria (www.slv.vic.gov.au). For specific characteristics of individual charts refer to Table 1. These nautical charts provide an unique historical perspective of the coast during the time of the surveys. These datasets were used by the author and collaborators to understand sedimentary dynamics and quantify human alterations in the coastal zone, by comparing their surfaces to contemporary Multibeam Echosounding (MBES) bathymetry and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. The georeferenced nautical charts and interpolated surfaces are in Geotiff format, and the digitised soundings, converted soundings and surface masks are in shapefile format. Files are compressed and organised in sub-folders inside specific charts.