Hardie Grant ends annual updates for Australian street directories

Hardie Grant, the publisher behind the UBD Gregory's and Refidex brands, has confirmed that it will end the practice of providing annual updates for its printed street directories. While the books will remain available for purchase, the publisher stated that the intensive cartographic cycles previously required to keep the maps current have become unsustainable.

The decision follows a long-term decline in demand for physical mapping products. According to Sandy Grant, chairman of Hardie Grant Publishers, sales for the directories have dropped to less than 20 per cent of the volume seen during their peak in the 1970s and 1980s, when the publisher moved approximately 250,000 copies each year.

"We'll keep them available, but we just can't have teams updating on the same cycles; it's just not possible anymore."

Sandy Grant, chairman of Hardie Grant Publishers, via ABC

This decline in market reach has led to a significant reduction in the workforce dedicated to map production. Historically, teams of up to 40 cartographers were tasked with maintaining the accuracy of the volumes. By the most recent edition, that number had been reduced to just two specialists. Reflecting on his time in the industry during the 1970s and 1980s, former cartographer David Lawler noted that the work once involved hand-drawing map components on large templates, which were then photographed and reduced to fit the standard book format.

Despite the widespread adoption of digital satellite navigation, the printed directory has retained a loyal customer base. Mr. Grant observed that the directories continue to be purchased by a cohort he described as being primarily composed of older men. Users often maintain these books as a physical fail-safe to be used when digital tools are compromised by depleted batteries, signal dropouts, or instances of inaccurate data provided by GPS platforms.

The ongoing relevance of these maps extends beyond individual drivers. Representatives from Emergency Services Western Australia previously contacted the publisher to voice concerns regarding the potential disappearance of printed directories. According to Mr. Grant, these officials noted that emergency vehicles sometimes require physical mapping to navigate remote tracks that have not been correctly catalogued by digital platforms, a necessity during critical response scenarios.

Beyond navigation, the directories serve as a repository for urban history. Environmental consultants and property developers continue to rely on archived editions—some dating back to the 1940s—to verify historical land usage. Accessing past data regarding the presence of sites such as former petrol stations is considered an essential step in identifying potential chemical storage issues before new development can proceed.

The broader implications of this shift are being analyzed by experts in human behavior. Associate Professor Grant Blashki of the University of Melbourne noted that a recent Telstra outage, which left commuters and delivery drivers without navigation, highlighted a high level of societal dependence on digital infrastructure. Dr. Blashki pointed to the concept of cognitive offloading, suggesting that persistent reliance on GPS tools may diminish a user's sense of direction and environmental awareness. He observed that as artificial intelligence becomes more entrenched in daily life, there may be a resurgence in the popularity of analogue methods as a reaction to an increasingly digital environment.

While Hardie Grant moves away from annual updates, the preservation of historical mapping data continues through other channels. Dedicated groups, such as the Mill Road History Society, began a project in 2026 to digitize legacy directories and provide them as downloadable, searchable files. These efforts expand upon earlier initiatives like the Historical Directories project, which began digitizing hundreds of publications in 2006.