Garmin and Hema joint Australian Topographical Maps
Garmin has released two new products specifically aimed at Australian audiences in an effort to put Hema Maps onto more Garmin devices. Previously Garmin released the RV-775, a tailored caravan GPS that had access to Hema’s raster maps and their Australian POI database. Now though they’re making it available across most of Garmin’s handheld GPS devices.
Unfortunately, Garmin hasn't made it simple with 4 different Topo map options all made by Garmin all with various benefits. I’ll try to outline each type below and then explain the differences between the data cards.
Garmin Hema and Garmin Topo Map Card
This is the card that has everything. It comes with Garmin’s Topographical map, Hema’s 72K Raster map and Hema’s POI database. On Hema’s side of benefits, you will have access to Hema’s full raster map which gives you the advantage of more than 105,000 km of tracks, roads and trails. You will also get 4WD destinations and hydrographic features (lakes/rivers, shorelines and perennial and seasonal streams. It will also include built-in DEM data with 3D shading and route elevation profiles to estimate terrain difficulty.
On Garmin’s side of things, you gain terrain contours (10m contours) summit elevation heights alongside Garmin’s own POI database and terrain identifiers. You can see on the compatible tab on this page which devices this map card is compatible with.
This map is ideal for every driving, camping, hiking, general outdoor recreation, offroad 4WD to name a few.
Hema Topo Maps (Left) and Garmin Full Topo Maps V6 (Right)
Garmin Hema Australia Map Card
This card comes with Hema’s 72K Raster map and can be loaded onto Garmin’s Handheld GPS units and some of their Bike GPS devices. You can see the full compatible list on the “Compatible With” tab on this page. This comes with just the Hema side of things that I mentioned in the previous map card options. It’s best suited for Offroad topographical information and activities like Hiking, Camping, Geocaching and 4WDing.
- 72K Topo Maps (terrain contours, topo elevations, summits, coastlines, rivers, lakes, streams)
- Hema’s Point Of Interest (POI) database
- Road, Highway, Trails coverage
- National, State and local parks and forests.
Garmin Topo Australia NZ MicroSD V6 Maps
This is the standard Garmin Topo maps card with 10m contours. It displays enhanced topographic details and terrain identifiers. These maps cover Australia, New Zealand, Lord Howe Island, Three Kings Islands, Snares Islands, Auckland Islands, Stewart Island, Campbell Island, Kermadec Islands, Chatham Islands, Bounty Islands and Antipodes Island.
- Contains 105,00km of tracks, roads and outback trails, also displays 4WD destinations and hydrographic features
- Provide topgraphic information for terrain contours, elevations, summit points, and coverage of perennial and intermittent lakes, rivers and streams
- Routable road tontent for turn-by-turn directions
This is ideal for a range of outdoor uses including hiking, driving, trail running, and offroad 4WD.
Garmin Topo Lite AU NZ MicroSD V6
These maps are basic topo maps with 40m contours and non-routable road content. The biggest difference on these maps compared to the Full Topo maps is that they are non-routable, have 40m contours as opposed to 10m and do not let users search by addresses.
This map is perfect if you need basic topographical information without the need for turn-by-turn navigation.
