Historical information

This is a set of 14 photographs of RA Svy technicians operating photogrammetric equipment in Air Survey Squadron, Army Survey Regiment, Fortuna, Bendigo; and the School of Military Survey Bonegilla c1960s to c1980s. The Wild B9 stereo plotter were introduced in 1962 and the Wild B8 stereo plotter was introduced in 1966. The Wild B9 and B8 stereo plotters were used for plotting topographic detail and contours. These analogue machines were manually controlled by adjusting the control knobs for the orientation of the 3D image. The B9s used a four and a half square, and the B8s used a nine-inch square photo image on a film or glass diapositive which allowed highly accurate extraction of map features. At first, plotting with B8 and B9 stereo plotters was undertaken at the aerial photography scale of 1:80,000 in pencil onto a controlled plotting sheet. Sheets were then inked up and reduced photographically to the 1: 100,000 publication scale for scribe impression production. In the early days topographic detail and contours were plotted with a pencil or ink pen mounted at the far end of the pantograph arm. The plotting procedure was upgraded to direct plotting in ink with photographic reduction to publication scale. In 1975 four B8s were upgraded with tri-axis locaters as part of the Input Sub-system to enable digital extraction to AUTOMAP 1’s topographic database. When AUTOMAP 2 was introduced in 1982 these B8s were upgraded, and additional machines added to expand the Army Survey Regiment’s digital capture capability. There are several more photos catalogued in the Victorian Collections database of RA Svy personnel operating Wild B9 and B8 stereo plotters.

Physical description

Photogrammetric Equipment – Army Survey Regiment, Fortuna, Bendigo c.1981. . .7) – Unidentified technician operating Wild B8 stereo plotter in AUTOMAP 1 at ASR. .8) - Wild B8 stereo plotter in AUTOMAP 1 at ASR.
Photogrammetric Equipment – Army Survey Regiment, Fortuna, Bendigo. c1981. .9) – ASR’s CPL Dave Cook in AUTOMAP 1 operating a Wild B8 stereo plotter.
This is a set of 14 photographs of RA Svy technicians operating photogrammetric equipment at the Army Survey Regiment (ASR), Bendigo and the School of Military Survey (SMS) Bonegilla. c1960s to c1980s. The photographs are on 35mm colour slides and were scanned at 96 dpi.
.1) - Photo, colour, c1964. Unidentified ASR technicians operating analogue Wild B9 stereo plotters.
.2) - Photo, colour, c1974. ASR’s SPR Mick Minchin operating an analogue Wild B8 stereo plotter.
.3) to .6) - Photo, colour, c1980. Photogrammetry Instructor SGT Neil ‘Ned’ Kelly at the SMS operating an analogue Wild B8 stereo plotter.
.7) - Photo, colour, c1981. Unidentified technician operating Wild B8 stereo plotter in AUTOMAP 1 at ASR.
.8) - Photo, colour, c1981. Wild B8 stereo plotter in AUTOMAP 1 at ASR.
.9) to .14) - Photo, colour, c1981. ASR’s CPL Dave Cook in AUTOMAP 1 operating a Wild B8 stereo plotter.

Inscriptions & markings

.1P to .14P - Some of the equipment is annotated on the frame of the 35mm slides.