Australia - Public Toilet Map
Finding a public toilet in Australia is easy
Australia has a National Public Toilet Map available on the internet. It is searchable and detailed. Accessible toilets are specifically identified as such.
Unlike Europe and North America, Australia still has many unattended, clean public toilets open 24 hours or at least from early in the morning until late in the evening.
The National Public Toilet Map is a website with four ways to search for toilets:
- browse using the map of Australia or the links to each state and territory, to find public toilets at a glance
- search for public toilets in a known area, using the location as a starting point
- search to find public toilets run by a particular operator
- plan a trip including the locations of the public toilets where you're going.
One of the drawbacks to browsing from the map and links is that you may not know all the names to look for. For example, to find accessible toilets in Innisfail, Queensland, you can look at the listings for Queensland, but immediately you have to know which region of Queensland to select from the six listed, if you are relying on the links.
Fortunately, Innisfail is shown on the map of Queensland.
Clicking on the name "Innisfail" on the map leads to a page with links to 19 shires (counties), and another map. Without knowing that Innisfail is within Johnstone Shire, it would be tedious to sort through the shire links one at a time. Fortunately, by clicking "Innisfail" on the map, the list of links for Johnstone Shire appears on the next screen.
There are three listings related to Innisfail in the links to the various towns (East Innisfail, Innisfail, and Innisfail Estate), so again, clicking the map seems easier.
Seems easier, but isn't. The map is not detailed enough at this level to accurately click on Innisfail.
Selecting "Innisfail" from the links works better. Up comes a detailed list of the eight public toilets for this area, with symbols to show which are accessible to wheelchair users, and text giving the address and open hours.
The map has a bit of a clutter of toilets, and no street names at this scale, but you can roll your mouse over the various public toilets marked on the map and read their names. By clicking on one of them, you get an enlarged version of the map for that particular location, showing the street names.
There is a link below the map leading to an explanation of the map symbols.
The symbol where the male or female figure is in blue against a white background indicates an accessible toilet. Where the figure is in white against a blue background, the toilet is not designated as accessible.
The trip planner is a handy tool for planning a driving or walking trip. It shows the route to take and the toilets along the way.
For an urban test of this system, we tried the planner for a walk around Circular Quay in Sydney. The Sydney Opera House is not too far from here. The planner was not suitable for this search, as we entered "Sydney" for both the starting and end points of the journey.
The Find function was not too good, either, because it did not recognize the name "Circular Quay" as a Point of Interest, which was a bit surprising.
However, the Find function did work well by entering "Circular Quay" for the Location.
Working with the Browse function and clicking on the map also led to a long list of Sydney toilets.
The National Public Toilet Map is linked to the National Continence Management Strategy website. This website says, "Incontinence is a common health problem that affects over 2 million Australians of all ages and backgrounds" and goes on to describe the various services in place to assist people. These include a variety of things, including bladder training and a help line for both urinary and faecal (fecal) incontinence.
Fortunately for travellers, Australia is very progressive in dealing with public toilets. While the National Continence Management Strategy is not meant to encourage tourism, it certainly does help tourists.
