Maps for Australia

We are just about to emigrate to Australia. Have been thinking about a GPS for the bike for some time but have never been able to justify it, especially as I am tempted by the Zumo 550.

As we will be in a strange country and will have no idea where is where a GPS seems like a good idea. Initially it will be for use in the car but a new bike is on the shopping list........has to be a GS.....maybe an 800 rather than a 1200.....

A Zumo 550 in the UK is about £370. A Zumo 550 in Oz is about $1200 which currently is about £600.

Would it be possible to buy the unit in the UK and somehow get it to work in Oz. Would I need to buys maps or different software. Any idea how much that would cost.

Any idea on how to do it cheaply as possible.......

Cheers

With some basic windows knowledge you can convert any Zumo into any region.

Cheapest (I think if you can lay your hands on it) is buy one in the USA or in England.
The Zumo 550 has different internal memory's in the USA, EU and Australia, where the EU version has 2GB, the Australian one only 800Mb (I think) and the USA version somewhere in between. So on the units point of view the EU version is the best.

The EU (or USA) version has that particular mapset preloaded. But you can overwrite that.

Anyway: You need to buy an official Australian Garmin NT mapset. I have no idea what they cost over here.

Once you got that you can overwrite the internal mapfile with that new set of maps (make sure you got a full backup of your Zumo's internals before you do!

I don't use a GPS system, but I know quite a few people who do.

Their recommendation is the Zumo units over others, although that may have changed.

Prices as far as I can understand are around the $1,300 AUD mark either on fleabay or a good street price from a hot dealer (wherever they are). I think official price is around $1,600 AUD.

http://www.gpsoz.com.au/garmin_zumo.htm

This may help you.

If you are moving to a city, Melbourne, Brisbane they can help, but if you are in a rural situation, you really don't need to spend the dosh for interstate travel.

One apparent upgrade some people mention is worthwhile, is one with a listing of every public toilet in Australia

Mick.

A Zumo 550 is around $1,275 here in Aussieland and, so I am told, the mapsets are a fair part of it due to the smaller demand. Considering you get the GPS unit, the ram motorcycle mounts, the car mount, home charger, PC cable, software and updates its not that bad. I don't know about the ram (just looked on mine and it seems to be 486Mb) but it holds all the maps of Australia and then some so can't complain. Does not really matter with the SD card to hold additional maps really.