Geocoding addresses with the MMQGIS plugin within QGIS
I have been given a spreadsheet of geotechnical reports (thousands of records) that I want to plot the location of in GIS, but unfortunately the list does not have coordinates! However, many of the records have street addresses that potentially are able to be geocoded. While geocoding has some pitfuls it should at least create approximate coordinates as a starting point and batch processing could save a lot of time. In looking through various options for batch conversion, I stumbled across the MMGIS plugin. After a little experimentation I managed to get a reasonable result. While there is a help file available, there are a couple of steps that I am documenting more fully, for my benefit and anyone else that happens to read this blog. My explanation below applies to an address format that works in Australia. While it does not appear that all the attributes of the table can be loaded into the file required for processing, a unique identifier field can be added (not documented...