GPS for Fishing Spots Question - VFA Website

[Waverley73]

Hi there. I was looking at this Victorian Fisheries Authority website and it lists different fishing spots and for each of them there is a photo with what looks like GPS co-ordinates but when I try to find the spots on Google Maps it has become clear the numbers aren't the traditional long / lat co-ordinates so does anyone know what they are (and how to find those exact spots using those numbers?

Eg, for Lake Benalla it has this: GPS E409027 N5954193 but these numbers don't make a lot of sense.

https://vfa.vic.gov.au/recreational-fis ... ke_Benalla



Cheers guys \m/

[Sinsemilla]

I'm not 100% but i don't think they are complete coordinates. I think they are missing the last numbers because they aren't giving you an exact spot but the coordinates of an area. I could be wrong though..

Cheers, Anth

[Mattblack]

Doesn't make sense to me either...it should be E 145.58 S 36.33 'ish'

https://www.gps-coordinates.net/gps-coo ... -converter

[Waverley73]

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I reckon it's weird that they have published those pics with those numbers when they don't appear to be actual GPS co-ords to those spots - not sure why they would even put them on there.

Here's Lake Benalla on Google Maps and the actual co-ords for it (well the part of the lake I selected) is in the URL (36.5495 S / 145.9769 E which when you look at the numbers on that site for there it has no correlation at all.

https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/La ... 45.9769353

[Waverley73]

Doesn't make sense to me either...it should be E 145.58 S 36.33 'ish'

https://www.gps-coordinates.net/gps-coo ... -converter

Exactly mate. It might be some other method of GPS - hopefully someone recognises it.

[Waverley73]

I've found the answer - they're using some weird alternative (to using long / lat) Dutch method called UTM.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal ... ate_system

https://www.geoplaner.com/

I wonder if the fisheries dudes really don't want ppl at those spots lol.

[re-tyred]

All fisheries/ state based government use UTM. it is the basic form of positioning for survey work. Conversion is easy. Just google UTM to Lat long.
Alternatively open google earth. Go to setting change the coordinates to UTM. Create a mark and enter the utm numbers. Go back to settings and change to deg min decimal minute. Look at the mark properties and it will be in lat long.

[ChuckH]

If you’ve got an iPhone I downloaded an app called coordinates a while ago, there’s about 6 or so different formats for gps coordinates, it’s a free app and quite easy to use

[ChuckH]

Here’s a screenshot of the apps gps options

[fishnut]

Maybe they are using a different datum and not wgs84