yep, in Bavaria Ober- and Nieder- relate to the proximity to the Alps.
More specifically, I think it refers to the height above sea level, i.e. Oberbayern (Upper Bavaria) is around 500 metres above sea level, whereas Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria) can be as low as 300 metres.
In New Zealand I bought a map that had NZ in roughly the same location as where the UK is on a European map of the world. On a European map, Europe is in the middle with the Americas to the west and Asia to the right. If I recall correctly, American maps often put the Americas in the middle with Europe on the right and Asia on the left.
Incidentally, it's not only Australia that's hard done by normal maps. Because the earth is round but a map is flat, the countries around the equator get squashed and so look smaller than they actually are.