Universal Publishers produce the ubiquitous ''UBD-Gregory's''

street directories A road map, route map, or street map is a map that primarily displays roads and transport links rather than natural geographical information. It is a type of navigational map that commonly includes political boundaries and labels, making it ...

in Australia. The names of these publications have come to be used as a generic term for street directories in many Australian cities.

Company profile

Universal publishes street directories, guides, maps and road atlases and is Australia's largest mapping and travel-related products publisher. The company distributes travel, language, and cartographic ranges for Berlitz,

Insight Guides Insight Guides, founded by Hans Johannes Hofer, is a travel company based in London with offices in Singapore and Warsaw. It sells customised package tours as well as guide books. It also produces travel books, maps, globes, and travel gadgets fo ...

Michelin Michelin ( , ), in full ("General Company of the Michelin Enterprises P.L.S."), is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes '' région'' of France. It is the second largest t ...

and Marco Polo.

Products

*Australian capital city street directories *State street directories for each state and territory *'CityLink' directories containing

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

street directories and surrounding regional areas *'Compact' street directories for capital cities and 'mini' street directories for eastern states capital cities *Regional street directories for each state containing town maps and a road atlas. The

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

town maps and road atlas are integrated into the

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...

directory *A variety of fold-out maps covering capital cities, regional areas and entire states *DVD versions of the capital/regional city street directories and regional Cities and Towns directories *Road atlases covering the whole of Australia The above products were branded UBD prior to the 2012 editions when production of standalone Gregory's street directories ceased in favour of cobranded UBD-Gregory's directories retaining the UBD format, UBD-Gregory's Darwin 2013, 4th edition. The last standalone Gregory's directory was the commemorative 75th Edition Sydney street directory, published in 2011. 2018 directories showed as being issued by UBD as a subsidiary to Hardie Grant Travel while 2019 directories show as being issued by Hardie Grant Travel with no mention of UBD although the Hardie Grant website shows the publisher as UBD Gregory's.

Comprehensive directories

While primarily street directories, UBD and Gregory's also contain details on public transport (

train A train (from Old French , from Latin">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ... , from Latin , "to pull, to draw") is a series of connected vehicles th ...

and

light rail Light rail (or light rail transit, abbreviated to LRT) is a form of passenger urban rail transit that uses rolling stock derived from tram technology National Conference of the Transportation Research Board while also having some features from ...

, tickets and prices), bicycle paths, suburb and postcode details, public parks and reserves, landmarks (such as commercial buildings,

telephone box A telephone booth, telephone kiosk, telephone call box, telephone box or public call box is a tiny structure furnished with a payphone and designed for a telephone user's convenience; typically the user steps into the booth and closes the booth ...

es,

pub A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the late 17th century, to differentiate private ho ...

s and

restaurants A restaurant is an establishment that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in app ...

), attractions, and also boat mooring details in recognised docks. They also contain maps of

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

campuses and

crematoria Cremation is a method of final disposition of a corpse through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India, Nepal, and Syria, cremation on an open-air pyr ...

. Prior to the UBD-Gregory's merger the UBD Compact street directories also contained a 'Cityside guide' with tourist information.

Cartography

The rendering of roads in most city and town maps uses the traditional drawing of two lines with the road name printed in between, (known as 'double casing'). In the UBD

directory Universal Press (2003) ''UBD 2003 Melbourne & Surrounds Street Directory 38th Edition'' maps show a single line with the name above or below the road to make it more appealing to people familiar with the

Melway Melway, colloquially referred to as Melways or The Melways, is a street directory for Melbourne,fictitious streets or buildings or other features, included for purposes of identifying competitor's products that have copied UBD's data without fieldchecking it. For this reason, UBD's and Gregory's products cannot be relied on completely for historical research. An example of a copyright trap is the 'boomerang factory' that appeared for many years on the UBD map of

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

, in the industrial suburb of

Fyshwick Fyshwick () is a retail and light industrial suburb of Canberra, Australia, east of the South Canberra district. At the , Fyshwick had a population of 56. It has many motor vehicle dealers, stores selling home furnishings and hardware, and s ...

, on the corner of Newcastle and Barrier streets, which location was in fact an exgovernment furniture depot. In other cases short dead-end streets or laneways (with or without names), or long-forgotten proposed roads, may appear.

References

{{Reflist Publishing companies of Australia Map publishing companies Companies based in Sydney