Australia's Street Directories Reach End of the Road

Australia's iconic street directories, once a staple in vehicles nationwide, are nearing the end of their print life, with publishers ceasing annual updates. Sandy Grant, chairman of Hardie Grant Publishers, which owns UBD Gregory's and Refidex, stated that the directories have "defied expectations for years" but their resilience has reached its limit.

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We're right at the very end of their life span.

"We're right at the very end of their life span," Grant said. "We'll keep them available, but we just can't have teams updating on the same cycles; it's just not possible anymore." He noted that the directories have maintained a surprisingly loyal customer base, primarily consisting of older men who use them as a backup for when phone batteries die or digital maps fail.

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We expected them to die a decade ago; they just haven't.

Sales have plummeted from a peak of around 250,000 copies annually in the 1970s and '80s to less than 20 percent of that volume today. The number of cartographers working on the books has also shrunk dramatically, from an estimated 25 to 40 specialists down to just two for the last edition. These cartographers worked with local planning authorities to track new developments and road changes.

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There is evidence that GPS use is linked to having a worse sense of direction and less environmental knowledge.

The recent Telstra outage served as a stark reminder of Australia's dependence on technology for navigation. Associate Professor Grant Blashki from the University of Melbourne commented on the potential downsides of this reliance, citing "cognitive offloading" linked to GPS use. "There is evidence that GPS use is linked to having a worse sense of direction and less environmental knowledge," he explained, recommending occasional breaks from digital navigation.

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The first people to ring us, literally within hours, were Emergency Services Western Australia saying, 'This can't be true, we have to have them'.