This page is designed to assist you in navigating the Department
of Transport and Regional Services Website.
The Department of Transport and Regional Services Web site
is predominantly text-based and optimized for viewing at 800
x 600 resolution with at least 256 colours (every effort is
made to ensure legibility at 640 x 480 resolution).
A frames-compatible browser is required for some websites hosted
by the Department and some areas use Java applets and JavaScript.
Home Page
From the Department's homepage you can either use the
structured links through our site, or you can use the
index or search engine to assist in locating information.
The information of the Department is arranged in broad
subject areas, with lists of Related Sites on the left
hand of all subject and information pages. A link
to the Latest Information can
be found on the home page.
Contact details for the Department are provided through
the Government Online Directory, and also on our Contact
Us page on top and bottom navigation on each web page. |
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Quick Search
Each page of the DOTARS site has a quick search tool enabling
you to search on keywords from anywhere on the site. This will
take you to the Search screen (with the search criteria specified
for a Keyword search on the entered words), and the results
for that search will be displayed. You can now use the search
page as you wish – refining or widening the search or
selecting an item of the Search Results.
Quick Links
This list allows you to quickly navigate to the most commonly
accessed sites. As you move around the DOTARS site the list
changes to provide Quick Links appropriate to the collection
you are currently in.
Legal Statements
These links will take you to the privacy, copyright, and other
legal statements relevant to the site.
Important Links
This collection of links will allow you to quickly access selected
Federal Government sites of interest.
Features
This area contains links to current features of the DOTARS
site. This may include the Annual Report, major news issues
relevant to the Department, and other significant items of interest.
Browse Area
The Browse Area allows you to browse through the site by dividing
it into five collections of related information. It provides
a home page for the selected collection with links to news items,
programmes, grants, services and so forth, as appropriate for
that area.
Please note that the screen images show a tab for each of the
four facets and a fifth tab for “The Department”.
This is a link to the home page for Departmental content such
as budget statements, annual reports, and organisation charts.
As you select links a content list of Search Results is displayed.
You may select a link from the search results at any time to
display the relevant page.
Navigation Bar
This provides direct links to some of the most commonly used
pages on the site: the Home Page, the Index Page, a Help screen,
Feedback forum, Contact Us information, and the main Search
screen.
Index Page
This screen allows you to select an item from the DOTARS subject
list and display a list of all content relating to that subject.
Alternative terms are also shown and may be selected. These
are then treated as though the original term had been selected.
The selection of an item from the subject list is aided by
allowing you to select a character (A to Z) and display those
subject list entries that begin with that character. It is also
possible to display entries that begin with a digit or other
non-letter character.
Only items in the subject list that have content are displayed.
This is to avoid displaying an item for selection and getting
zero results.
Help
The Help page provides a selection of useful information for
navigating around the web site, a brief overview of pages of
interest, and any issues relating to file formats or tools you
may need to access information on the site.
Feedback
The Feedback screen allows you to send appropriate feedback
to the area responsible for maintaining and updating the website,
and is to be used for website related issues only.
Contact Us
This provides contact details for the public to use when communicating
with the Department.
Search
The search screen is directly accessible from all DOTARS site
screens. It allows you to specify a range of search criteria
and return Search Results meeting the Search Criteria.
Search Criteria
Fields are as follows:
Search For |
The word or words to be
searched for with a wild card character, *, accepted |
Select a Search Method |
Select one of the four
methods as follows:
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Search Within |
Select one of the main
facets or the whole site:
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Return pages updated
in the |
Selection of:
The date used is the last modified date unless that is
null, in which case the date created is used. |
Return results where my terms occur |
Enables selection of Metadata element
as follows:
Note: Document Type is included to allow a search
such as show me all News Items within the past seven days. |
The text search results are returned sorted by the date and
time each item was created or last modified.
Search Results
In many cases you will not explicitly carry out a search, rather
the search is performed as the result of a selection you make,
such as clicking on a link in the Browse Area. When selecting
an item from the search results the relevant page will be displayed.
The search results list displays items within all the DOTARS
web sites, not just the main DOTARS web site. This includes
content within the ATSB, BTRE and other web sites. It displays
the Title, Description and last modification date of the item.
Important pages will be displayed at the top of the list, and
indicated with the term Key Page in brackets.
The list is generally sorted in date order from most recent
to the oldest. The list is numbered and broken up into groups
of results (default 10 items per group) with previous and next
links as appropriate.
You can adjust the number of items displayed in result groups
through a widget located with the previous and next page links.
Options available are 10, 20, 50 200, or all results.
If the page displayed is on the main DOTARS web site (www.dotars.gov.au)
it will open in the current browser window, otherwise a new
browser window is created. This difference in behaviour is due
to the main DOTARS site screens visually belonging to the same
site whereas screens on the other sites do not.
Other Areas of Interest
Department
From the Department page on our Web site you can find all you
need to know about us - the Commonwealth Department of Transport
and Regional Services. You will find information relating
to the structure of the department, including the function,
role and contact information for specific program areas in the
department. We have online copies of our Annual Reports, Certified
Agreement, Corporate Plan and Service Charter. You can
also check out the latest job vacancies and read about our Graduate
Program.
Media Centre
The Department's Media Centre provides a range of information
including media releases and speeches.
Ministers
The Ministers' websites provide background and contact details
for our Ministers as well as media releases, speeches and audio
files.
Software
Adobe Acrobat
A standard for viewing formatted documents which have been optimised
for delivery via electronic means. The free Adobe Acrobat Reader
allows you to view, navigate and print PDF files across many different
platforms. PDF files look exactly like the orginal document.
By using Adobe Acrobat Reader you can display bookmarks or thumbnails
in an overview area to the left of the document. Beneath the menu
bar at the top of the window is the toolbar; at the bottom left
of the window is the status bar. At the right of the window is a
vertical scroll bar that enables you to scroll up and down through
a document. The overview area of the window includes an independent
scroll bar that you can use to scroll through bookmarks or thumbnails.
PDF documents can maintain hypertext links connecting two parts
of a document or to another application file, such as a spreadsheet
or movie. Links also connect PDF documents to other documents on
Web servers.
To use Acrobat Reader with your web browser you need to first download
the Acrobat Reader from Adobe's Website and install it on
your computer.
To get the Acrobat Reader 5 you need to visit Adobe's Website:
Windows Media Player
A standard for playing multimedia files of various formats (MP3,
WAV, AVI etc.) which have been optimised for delivery via electronic
means.
To get the Windows Media Player Program you need to visit the Microsoft
Website - Downloads, choose product: Windows Media Player, select
your operating system (MS Windows 95/98/2000 etc.) and when downloaded,
install the program. Once installed, you can save multimedia files
to your local drive before playing to improve quality, or use streaming
media (instant play), which begins to play while the file is still
downloading.
Winzip
A standard for online data delivery, Winzip allows large files
(or file sets) to be "compressed" to expedite delivery
via electronic means. The ZIP file is downloaded (more quickly)
by a user, then it is "de-compressed" to re-create the
original file.
To get the Winzip Program you need to go to Winzip's Website:
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