Google Sightseeing takes you on tour of the world as seen from satellite, using the free Google Earth program, or Google Maps in your web browser. Each weekday your guides James and Alex present new weird and wonderful sights as suggested by readers.

The editors: James & Alex

Street View for Australia and Japan

Posted by James Turnbull, Monday, 4th August 2008

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Much to the annoyance of the tinfoil-hat privacy nuts, Street View’s spread across the globe continues with two launches today: Japan and Australia!

Japan has coverage in the following cities: Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama, Saitama, Chiba, Sendai, Sapporo, Hakodate, Kyoto and Tokyo.


The previously featured Tokyo Tower.

Australia has loads of Street View, with the following cities covered: Perth, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide, Cairns, Mt Isa, Canberra, Albany, Alice Springs, Rockhampton, Broome, Tamworth, Broken Hill, Karratha and Geraldton.


The previously featured Sydney Opera House.

There’s also new Street View in many US cities, including New Orleans, Baton Rouge, El Paso, Wichita, Savannah and Colorado Spring. Even more exciting, in the official announcement Google allude to a “hidden special surprise” in the US images. What could that be?

There’s hundreds of new streets covered across the three countries, so get exploring and let us know what you find!

Thanks to Google Maps Mania.

16 Responses to 'Street View for Australia and Japan'

  1. MapsRus says:

    Great News! It’s too bad Google didn’t pull out the high res cameras like in France though.

  2. Rob says:

    In keeping with my narrow view of the world, the first place I visited was Ramsay Street, which is actually a cul-de-sac called Placemark: Pin Oak Court / Google Earth in the suburbs of Melbourne. This has made my day! :D

  3. Rob says:

    I think instead of “Senda” you might mean “Sendai.”

  4. James says:

    @ Rob (2): Thanks, I’ve corrected that.

  5. Michael says:

    I find it interesting that not only is the imagery very low resolution (so low they don’t need to blur faces or license plates because they’re already blurry), but that the imagery is (in some cases) more than 2 years old.

  6. russ says:

    gosh darn that’s awesome! my house is on there.. woo hoo!

    they’ve covered so much of sydney, even my mum’s place – which is 50km from the city.

  7. Don says:

    “Were you listening to me, Neo? Or were you looking at the woman in the red dress?”

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

  8. Bart says:

    what the hell were they thinking here (location, near Hall just outside of Canberra)

    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

    submitted it to google sightseeing but there isn’t really much to see (or perhaps…too much to see)

  9. Petra says:

    There was a news report here in New Zealand the other day that Google would be updating NZ imagery with street view shortly. I’m looking forward to that! :)

  10. Rob says:

    @Bart: Agreed, zooming out to view the whole of Australia shows just an astounding amount of coverage, right into the middle in Alice Springs.

  11. Tim R-T-C says:

    How many times are we going to hear that bizarre argument that burlgars could use Googlesightseeing to find houses to rob. By that same measure, perhaps we should ban people who walk or drive up and down roads…

  12. Michael says:

    It’s really great coverage in Australia. This 400 inhabitants town in the middle of nowhere, with the best you will ever see, the black cockatoo
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

  13. Jezza says:

    Wow! They even bothered coming down to Tasmania!

  14. Bart says:

    @Jezza – they went everywhere. Middle of NSW roads with nothing in sight…photographed every 5 metres. Even my home town (pop ~2200)

    Crazy to think how many k’s they did getting all this.

  15. dr.R. says:

    There are some Placemark: strange disruptions in the middle of nowhere / Google Earth along Eyre highway.

    You can even deduce that the driver must have spent the night Placemark: here / Google Earth: if you go further west from this point on, you see the sun rising on the eastern horizon.

    By the way, am I the only one having problems moving the little icon around when using the GSS streetview?

  16. russ says:

    @Don – this is the waterfall fountain were you’d see the lady in the red dress:
    Placemark: Google Maps / Google Earth

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