Home » News » Brisbane River renamed ‘Ithaca Creek’ in bizarre Google Maps glitch

20 August, 2020

Brisbane River renamed ‘Ithaca Creek’ in bizarre Google Maps glitch

A call to rename a local creek by a 13-year-old map lover saw the Brisbane River renamed instead, along with connecting waterways.

The requests of young Aidan Ameer, who spends much of his time reportedly poring over maps, and even had a Google Maps cake for his eighth birthday, have seen a glitch emerge on Google Maps.

“Mistakes in Google Maps have always bothered him and he likes to report them to Google to make things more accurate,” Aidan’s father, Ismaan Ameer, told ABC Radio Brisbane.

Ameer explained that the family live by a creek that was listed as the Brisbane River, so Aiden set about trying to get it corrected, with Google responding that it would look into the issue.

“A few months later we’ve noticed now that yes, the creek next to us is now called Ithaca Creek, which is good. He’s really happy about that,” Ismaan told ABC Radio Brisbane.

But Aidan and his father soon noticed that the renaming had stretched much further than the creek, with “everywhere that used to be called Brisbane River” also renamed Ithaca Creek.

https://twitter.com/_ismaan_/status/1292232874582630400?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1292232874582630400%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.abc.net.au%2Fnews%2F2020-08-10%2Fbrisbane-river-renamed-to-ithaca-creek-in-google-maps-glitch%2F12540702

ABC Radio Brisbane listeners said Toowong Creek and Cubberla Creek were among the connecting waterways rebranded in the glitch.

Speaking to ABC Radio Brisbane at the time, a spokesperson from Google said a team was working to correct the error.

“We use a number of different sources to accurately model the real world, including authoritative third party sources, contributions from users, and Street View and satellite imagery,” the spokesperson said.

“Overall, this provides an accurate, up-to-date map, and when there are inaccuracies, we work to address as quickly as possible.”

The spokesperson was unable to specify when the Brisbane River’s name would be corrected; however, Google Maps now appears to have fixed the issue, with the river renamed.

Image source: Google Maps

Featured image source: Twitter/@_ismaan_

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