Australian Hydrographic Service - Great Barrier Reef (GBR) ENC Evaluation Sample Data-cell

This ENC cell is for evaluation purposes only and is NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION.

The data is also subject to copyright:

This work is copyright. Apart from uses permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and uses permitted as a part of evaluating the data, no part may be reproduced by any process, adapted, exploited by the reverse engineering of formats or commercially exploited without prior written permission from the Commonwealth represented by the Australian Hydrographic Service.

This ENC evaluation data cell represents one of the cells in the Australian Hydrographic Service's commercial Australian ENC series. It is supplied in the same S-57 Edition 3.1 format that commercial Australian ENC cells are supplied in. However, for ease of viewing, this evaluation data cell is not security protected like Australian ENCs and most ENCs produced by other nations. Mariners wishing to purchase ENCs after evaluation should check that their preferred viewing system is compliant with the particular security scheme used by their ENC distributor before purchase (because compatibility issues are occasionally encountered). Further information about availability of commercial Australian ENCs can be found on the Australian Hydrographic Service web site at www.hydro.gov.au.

This ENC has been compiled mainly from source survey information. Its general appearance differs from the more conventional ENCs in that 1 metre depth contours have been encoded within the area "Western Approaches to Torres Strait". In selected areas soundings have also been included. It is anticipated that detailed depth contours in areas where underkeel clearance is critical, will provide far more accurate safety contours on the ECDIS. Mariners in particular are encouraged to comment on this and other features of this data.

ECDIS manufacturers' attention is also drawn to the fact that although this ENC has a header compilation scale (CSCL) of 1:150 000, there are also several areas within this ENC with different compilation scales encoded in the meta object M_CSCL and attributes CSCALE. It should also be noted that important information has been encoded using the attribute TXTDSC. Australia has found that some ECDIS' cannot read or display such data, which we understand to be in contravention of the IMO Performance Specifications for ECDIS (clause 1.4).

Various ranges of SCAMIN have also been applied to objects within this ENC.

This ENC has also been fully encoded with zones of confidence for the bathymetric data within meta objects M_QUAL and attributes CATZOC. Again, mariners and ECDIS manufacturers are encouraged to analyse and comment on this information.

All comments, suggestions, enquiries or questions relating to this ENC should be directed to:

Licensing Manager
Australian Hydrographic Office
Locked Bag 8801,
Wollongong
NSW 2500
AUSTRALIA
Or email: hydro.licensing@defence.gov.au
Or facsimile: +61 2 4223 6597 (attention: Licensing Manager)