The Australian Spatial Data Directory (ASDD) is being switched off in August 2014. According to Office of Spatial Policy (now part of the Dept. of Communications and to be renamed soon), the ageing infrastructure that the ASDD is currently working on is being retired and not replaced.

The replacement catalogue, FIND, is built on a GeoNetwork platform and has just been released by Geoscience Australia and data.gov.au as a beta for testing and public comment.

Previous nodes of the ASDD are not being automatically transferred to the new platform, but managers are being approached to be added back to this catalogue as the beta test progresses.

If you were a node manager previously but have not yet been approached, OSP urges you to contact Margie Smith at spatial@communications.gov.au.

The replacement for ASDD, FIND, provides better access to a network of open government data. The catalogue allows search and download of a wide range of spatially-referenced datasets created by both the Australian and State and Territory Governments. The catalogue will be expanded as new partners come online.

You can find FIND online (please excuse the rhyme) at http://find.ga.gov.au.