Surveying for Central Station, 1900 (4010230662)

Surveying in Australia is

triangulation In trigonometry and geometry, triangulation is the process of determining the location of a point by forming triangles to the point from known points. Applications In surveying Specifically in surveying, triangulation involves only angle me ...

-based and shares many similarities with the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, including the title deed system. However, a distinctive feature of

surveying Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

is the

Torrens System Torrens title is a land registration and land transfer system, in which a state creates and maintains a register of land holdings, which serves as the conclusive evidence (termed " indefeasibility") of title of the person recorded on the regist ...

, where

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

records are held in a central deposit and guaranteed by the state.

History

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

created

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

s in the night sky that related to the geography of the land and used these 'maps' for navigation. Dutch explorers, in 1606, made the first recorded European sightings and first recorded landfalls of the Australian mainland. The first accurate drawn maps of Australia were compiled during the voyages of

Captain Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

. Cook's experience in creating nautical charts of the eastern seaboard of Canada was an important factor in his appointment as captain of the voyage observing the transit of Venus. As he sailed the coastlines, he charted the bays and coastlines.

Early exploration

Early surveying efforts concentrated on finding suitable town sites. Many towns in Australia were established by dividing a suitable site into small plots of land that were sold to English residents who then emigrated. Other exploration expeditions were made to the interior in an attempt to find fertile land.

New South Wales

The first attempts to regulate surveying in New South Wales was in 1836. In 1876, use of the

circumferentor A circumferentor, or surveyor's compass, is an instrument used in surveying to measure horizontal angles. It was superseded by the theodolite in the early 19th century. A circumferentor consists of a circular brass box containing a magnetic n ...

was prohibited. The theodolite supplanted it as a more accurate measurer of angles. The Torrens system was introduced in 1862 by the Real Property Act. The previous system of registering deeds is now known as the "old system". Swan River Colony land grants map

Survey system of Australia

Initially surveys were conducted using magnetic bearings. Later measurements were made on county arbitrary meridians, where surveys in each county were based on an initial point determined by government surveyors. In 1837, Colonel William Light, first Surveyor-General of South Australia adapted maritime navigation techniques for determining a ship's position at sea (co-ordinates of latitude and longitude) to define property boundaries, and thereby devised and implemented the world's first co-ordinated cadastre, employing a Trigometrical Survey of the District of Adelaide (Adelaide Plains) four times more accurate than the contemporary British Ordnance Survey. In 1966, the first nationwide system, the Australian geodetic datum (AGD) was established. Most states appointed surveyors-general early in their history. These officials were responsible for setting up reliable systems to record land purchases and claims. The current Australian survey system is the geocentric datum of Australia, established in 1994. It was adopted nationally on 1 January 2000. Surveying is regulated at a federal level by

Geoscience Australia Geoscience Australia is an agency of the Australian Government. It carries out geoscientific research. The agency is the government's technical adviser on all aspects of geoscience, and custodian of the geographic and geological data and knowl ...

Finding a site for the capital

Melbourne–Sydney rivalry led to division in the late 1800s on where the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...

should be sited. After an extensive search, the present site, about 300 kilometres south-west of Sydney, in the foothills of the Australian Alps, was chosen in 1908 as a result of survey work done by the government surveyor

Charles Scrivener Charles Robert Scrivener (2 November 1855 – 26 September 1923) was an Australian surveyor, and the person who surveyed numerous sites in New South Wales for the selection of a site for the Australian Capital Territory and Australia's capital ...

in that year.

Professional associations

Surveying in Australia is still highly differentiated between the states. A fully qualified surveyor in Western Australia, for example, is known as a licensed surveyor. The title is administered by the Land Surveyors Licensing Board of Western Australia. * The Association of Consulting Surveyors (ACS) * The Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute (SSSI) * The Institution of Surveyors NSW Inc * The Institution of Surveyors Victoria * Western Australian Institution of Surveyors * Queensland Spatial & Surveying Association * Surveyors Board of South Australia. * The Australian Institute of Mine Surveyors * Australasian Institute of Marine Surveyors * The

Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping ANZLIC, or The Spatial Information Council, is the peak intergovernmental organisation providing leadership in the collection, management and use of spatial information in Australia and New Zealand. It supports the establishment of a Spatial Da ...

(ICSM)

References

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External links

History of mapping and surveying of land in QueenslandHow the ACT borders were determined
Surveying of Australia Australian property law