  The Southern Galactic Plane Survey (SGPS) is a project to image the HI line
emission and 1.4 GHz continuum in the fourth quadrant of the Milky Way at high
resolution using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) and the Parkes
Radio Telescope. In this paper we describe the survey details and goals,
present lambda 21-cm continuum data, and discuss HI absorption and emission
characteristics of the SGPS Test Region (325.5 deg < l < 333.5 deg; -0.5 deg <
b < +3.5 deg). We explore the effects of massive stars on the interstellar
medium (ISM) through a study of HI shells and the HI environments of HII
regions and supernova remnants. We find an HI shell surrounding the HII region
RCW 94 which indicates that the region is embedded in a molecular cloud. We
give lower limits for the kinematic distances to SNRs G327.4+0.4 and G330.2+1.0
of 4.3 kpc and 4.9 kpc, respectively. We find evidence of interaction with the
surrounding HI for both of these remnants. We also present images of a possible
new SNR G328.6-0.0. Additionally, we have discovered two small HI shells with
no counterparts in continuum emission.
