The Positioning Australia program is a $225 million commitment from the Australian Government to provide 10 cm accurate positioning to all Australians. This is a significant improvement from the 5-10 m accuracy you can currently achieve using GPS enabled devices. In anticipation for the growing use and reliance on positioning technology, Geoscience Australia has led the upgrade of Australia's Geospatial Reference System (collection of datums, reference frames, models, infrastructure and standards) to ensure Australian's can maximise the benefits of precise positioning. This talk will explain why the Australian Geospatial Reference System is the foundation for the Positioning Australia program.

The Positioning Australia Program is delivering every day. Thousands of users from all around the country connect to our systems to access accurate and reliable data from a national network of continuously operating reference stations. A national capability cannot be achieved alone, it takes collaboration across all levels of government and industry. In this presentation Ryan and Amy will show how open data delivered through Positioning Australia is supporting the inland rail project and delivering better positioning services for farmers in South Australia. There have been many challenges to overcome in delivering this national capability. The speakers will discuss how GA has partnered with industry to facilitate access to land and build infrastructure across the nation during the COVID lockdowns and border closures. Finally, Ryan and Amy will share how we are working to continuously improve our offerings and access to our data and change the positioning landscape in Australia.

Geoscience Australia currently retains the Analysis Centre Coordinator role for the International GNSS Service (IGS). The IGS Analysis Centre Coordinator (ACC) has overall responsibility for generating the main official IGS combined products. Currently, there are three IGS product lines for GNSS satellite orbits and clocks, namely the IGS Final, the IGS Rapid, and the IGS Ultra-rapid products, each with different accuracies and latencies. The IGS is a key operational agency for supporting multi-constellation GNSS operations enabling governments, academia and industry to provide highest quality positioning services. This coordination role is fundamental to the Positioning Australia program and specifically for the Ginan Analysis Centre Software to transition into an IGS endorsed globally recognised Analysis Centre. This talk introduces the GA's role in the IGS Analysis Centre Coordination and the relevance to the Positioning Australia and generally Australia operating a GNSS Analysis Centre with an operational Ginan analysis centre software as part of the GA Strategy 2028 Creating a Location-Enabled Australia.

Motion of the Australian continent has been well studied in the horizontal direction, but there are minimal studies considering the vertical motion. Recent measurements using the Global Positioning System (GPS) suggest that the Australian continent is sinking, but current understanding of geophysical processes suggests that the expected vertical motion of the plate should be close to zero or uplifting. Understanding how the surface of the earth changes has many important applications like the response of the earth system to climate and sea level change and resource availability. This presentation will explore how the Australian plate is moving and what that means for applications of precise positioning.

This report overviews the status and development of the Asia Pacific Reference Frame (APREF) project, which is a major activity of the Geodetic Reference Framework for Sustainable Development Working Group of the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Asia and the Pacific (UN-GGIM-AP), and the Reference Frame Sub-Commission 1.3e (SC1.3e) of the International Association of Geodesy (IAG). In this work, the APREF Continuously Operating Reference Station (CORS) network is reviewed. This is followed by an overview of the analysis methodology and strategy adopted for processing of data from the network. Coordinate time series, velocities as well as other parameters are generated for 450 CORS sites across the Asia-Pacific region and 200 International GNSS Service (IGS) core stations located around the world. An accuracy assessment of the output and products, including the estimated position and velocity field is presented. The position solutions have an internal accuracy of 1-4 mm and 4-8 mm in horizontal and vertical components, respectively, determined from position repeatability of the weekly solutions. When compared with the published IGS14 velocities for the 173 common sites, the velocity solutions have an external accuracy of 0.02 ± 0.29 mm/yr, 0.01 ± 0.32 mm/yr, and 0.08 ± 0.54 mm/yr for north, east and vertical components, respectively. Products of the APREF Project include the daily and weekly solutions, combined weekly solutions, position time series of long-term solutions, coordinates and velocity field of the CORS network in ITRF2014.

Through Commonwealth and State/Territory government partnerships, the National Location Information (NLI) Branch implements cutting-edge approaches to integrate and deliver data, services and analytical capability to the public, Government and critical industries. This DGAL will present examples of NLI’s work - work central to the Australian Government’s ambitious Digital Economy Strategy to make Australia a leading global digital economy by 2030, along with the Australian Data Strategy, to ensure government data is in the ‘best state’ to feed this future digital economy. Specifically, the talk will cover: The Digital Atlas of Australia Improving geospatial data and services discovery, share and access The Australian low-water coastline Bringing historic aerial imagery archive back to life ELVIS portal – creating sustainable access through collaboration

Precise positioning based on constellations of navigation satellites brings significant economic and social benefits to Australia. Precise positioning reduces fertiliser and chemical spray waste in agriculture. It improves the efficiency of operations in large mine sites. Precise positioning improves safety in aircraft operations and can even give added freedom of movement to sight impaired people. The rationale behind the Ginan project is to develop the software and data products to allow everybody in Australia to enjoy the benefits of precise positioning through the creation of new services and products, and in doing so drive economic growth enhancing Australia's prosperity.