New funding to boost TLCMap's 'Advanced Techniques and Big Data' project

The Time-Layered Cultural Map of Australia (TLCMap) will continue its growth and development following the announcement of $472,543 in new funding from the Australia Research Council’s Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) scheme for 2023.

The funding will help TLCMap enable research on a larger scale, using data sets and layers rapidly created with machine assistance as part of an ‘Advanced Techniques and Big Data’ project.

The project will help users create new large-scale data sets, with each entry located in space and time, and to provide new map layers to serve as context for multiple research projects.

Lead Investigator for the TLCMap project, Emeritus Professor Hugh Craig, welcomed the announcement and the possibilities the new funding will open up for the project.

"We are delighted to be able to keep the TLCMap momentum going and to add new tools and functions to the platform," Emeritus Professor Craig said.

"It will be exciting to see the research that they will make possible, both for the team of Chief Investigators and for our wider community of users."

Since launching in 2020, TLCMap has quickly become an established part of Australian humanities infrastructure.

It has brought digital mapping within the reach of researchers without advanced IT skills or the funding for a developer, enabling them to see otherwise hidden patterns via spatial and temporal dimensions and to increase the impact of their findings through accessible, engaging visualisations.

Time-layered maps have been created showing missions and reserves under the authority of the Aboriginal Protection/Welfare Board in NSW; mentions of bushfires in colonial newspapers; newspaper reports from across the country of the exploits of a notorious murderer; and the movements of individuals who benefited from slavery.