Are Australians losing their sense of direction due to phone apps?

It's a chilly morning in the Victorian High Country, and a group of campers are starting the day with a bacon sandwich.

They're not here for the scenery — they're mapping Australia's most remote and rugged tracks.

"We're on the road with the Map Patrol, and we'll be capturing some tracks that might have changes due to the long snowy season this year," said team leader Rhys Holmes.

The Map Patrol was dreamt up by the Australian company Hema Maps in the late 1990s.

The small team crisscrosses the continent, racking up 100,000 kilometres a year to record each and every road.

Dangerous dependence

It's the kind of thorough mapping that's needed more than ever, as an increasing number of Australians get lost and bogged due to our reliance on mobile phone apps, such as Google Maps.

The global mapping systems have patchy coverage of regional areas, and often don't function out bush due to the lack of phone range.

Hema mapmaker Brett Madsen says it's a growing safety issue.

"We're aware of a few instances where people have been stranded or been in the wrong location, that's led to deaths and people being stuck for weeks on end," he said.

And he reckons our reliance on electronic voice directions is causing people to switch off their critical thinking.

"People tend to follow where the phone's telling them where to go, and not necessarily looking at what they're driving on," he said.

"They're just saying, oh it's telling me to go that way, I have to go that way, whereby the trust they're placing in those devices now is massive and potentially dangerous."

So at a time when both 4WD and smart phone sales are booming — is there still a place for an old-fashioned paper map?

A cold drizzle starts as the Map Patrol vehicles pick their way through a steep gully.

Mapping software glows on the dashboard, recording a GPS location every 5 metres.

"It's dropping breadcrumbs along this track, and they'll all being connected up to show one line," explained Rhys Holmes.

"It's giving us a latitude and longitude and elevation, so for simple map geometry it's a simple X, Y and Z."

The team enters detailed information about the track condition, hazards, camping facilities and points of interest that will be fed into Hema's online products and detailed guidebooks.

Brett Madsen, a geospatial engineer by trade, said there was no substitute for actually driving a road.

"We're sometimes asked why we don't just use aero photography and satellite imagery to make the maps," Brett said.

"But you really need to get out there and get your car dirty and see it for yourself.

"We're just lucky we have a way more luxurious journey than the early surveyors — they were phenomenal."

A long history of mapping

For tens of thousands of years, Aboriginal people used songs, story and rock art to record the best and safest routes across the continent.

Then, in the 19th century, teams of surveyors set out with horses, lugging the theodolites, chains and inkwells needed to record the first rough roads carved out for transportation.

These days, the mapping data is fed in real-time into Hema's centralised system, creating a cobweb of roads that reveal where Australians journey, and where we remain reluctant to go.

Large swathes of the interior have barely a line, the landscape too hot and dry for all but the hardiest Indigenous communities and four-wheel drivers to traverse.

And it's these remote areas that pose the greatest risk to inexperienced travellers who hit the road without a proper map.

In recent years, numerous intrepid travellers have got into strife after following the path set by generic navigation apps.

It's a growing issue among inexperienced travellers, according to Paul Warner from the organisation Four Wheel Drive Australia.

"There are many reports of people blindly following where the voice tells them, because they presume it's going to tell them a viable route, and that's not always the case, especially outside of the city," he said.

"People need to keep their wits about them, and be monitoring things like track conditions, weather, and what they're actually seeing with their eyes."

Police rescues

So is it an example of technology making us dumber?

Jim Armstrong oversees search and rescue operations for WA Police.

He reckons technology like digital maps and Personal Locator Beacons (PBS) are helping keep people safe — but only if they're used properly.

"The key thing is for people to watch where they're going, because Google Maps will show you a road, but it won't show you that it's flooded or surrounded by bushfire," he said.

He urges adventurers to keep an eye on government emergency travel apps, and download map data before setting off, so they're not reliant on mobile network coverage.

Off-road and online

The Map Patrol vehicles have both generic and Hema navigation devices mounted on the front dash, and the difference is stark.

The in-built car device, built from global mapping data, shows us floating in a large blank section of grey space.

"The generic digital maps are really designed for urban areas, which in Australia, is the 5 per cent of the continent where 95 per cent of the population live," explains Brett Madsen.

"They're just not suited to driving out bush, even though that's what the cars are designed to do.

The company is planning a push into the United States market, as well as trying to become a factory standard feature in 4WD vehicles.

Digital products now make up 50 per cent of Hema's sales, but the pivot to digital hasn't been seamless.

In 2024, a joint venture with an app developer went sour, and the company's online map service was abruptly shut down.

There's currently a civil case before the courts, and the company's online platforms have had to be rebuilt.

Family origin story

It's all a far cry from the company's humble beginnings in Queensland in 1983.

Henry and Margaret Boegheim started out laminating nautical charts at their Brisbane home, forming the company name from the first letters of their first names.

In 2025, it was sold for the first time, to businessman and outdoor adventurer Sam Hayward.

His eyes light up as we talk about maps, not so much as a product, but a gateway to adventure.

"I'm like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to maps," he chuckles.

"It's a real passion, because it's actually about aspiration — where do you want to go, where's your family going to holiday, what's just beyond that boundary?"

"Mother Nature is the greatest teacher, so if you ask me, the more time outdoors the better, not just for yourself but for society."

The 'romance' of maps

So what future is there for the old-fashioned printed map, stored in the glove box and pulled out around the kitchen table?

According to Hema, sales remain stable — around half a million paper maps a year — and Mr Hayward is determined they won't go out of print.

"There's nothing like opening up a map and gathering around it, and working out where you're going to go," he reflects.