Frequently asked questions
What is Cadastral Surveying?
Cadastral surveying is the discipline of land surveying relating to land ownership, rights, interests and restrictions on your land.
What are Property Boundaries? How do I find my Property Boundaries?
Only a surveyor registered with the Surveyors Board of Queensland can determine the location of your property boundary by performing a cadastral survey. This involves historic plan and title searches, field survey to reinstate and mark the property boundaries, identification of any encroachments and other relevant improvements on or near the boundaries, preparation of a sketch plan and lodgement of the plan with the Department of Resources for survey records.
What are Encroachments and Improvements?
Whenever a boundary is surveyed any encroachments or improvements near, on or over the boundary must be noted. Improvements are permanent alterations to the land such as retaining walls, fences and buildings. Encroachments are improvements that fall under the definition within the Property Law Act 1974 (ie. encroachment by a substantial building, or wall, of a permanent character, including encroachment by overhang of any part as well as encroachment by intrusion of any part upon the soil). Our surveyors are required to identify the size, nature and location of any improvements that are near, on or over the boundary.
By having the correct information land owners are better equipped to agree on a solution and move forward.
What is an Easement?
An easement is a secondary interest attached to a parcel of land. Easements will either burden or benefit the land. An easement gives rights to use land for a specific purpose and will be binding on all successors in title.
What is a Survey Plan?
A Survey Plan is a technical and legal document prepared by a cadastral surveyor. This plan contains details about the dimensions and area of a parcel of land. In Queensland, every property has a certificate of title that refers to the current Survey Plan.
A Survey Plan is not to be confused with a contour and detail plan which provides the location of features and levels within a site.
There are three main formats of Survey Plans.
1 Standard Format Plans create parcels that are two dimensions at ground level that are not limited in height and depth.
2 Building Format Plans create parcels within a building structure. These parcels are generally limited to the extents of the defining structures walls, ceilings and floors. A unit development is a good example of where this type of plan would be required.
3 Volumetric Format Plans create parcels which are three dimensional. This kind of plan may be necessary to define different schemes within a high-rise building or perhaps create a parcel of land over underground tunnels etc.
Is cadastral surveying regulated?
Cadastral surveying is a highly-regulated profession. The Surveyors Board of Queensland administers the Surveyors Act 2003 which was established to protect the public and ensure confidence in the profession of surveying. The Board is responsible for setting the standards for competency and registration, registering competent persons, conducting investigations and initiating disciplinary proceedings, where necessary.
Survey Mark is fully registered with the Surveyors Board of Queensland and is also a proud member of the Urban Development Institute of Australia and The Surveying and Spatial Sciences Institute.
What is a Form 18?
You no longer provide signatures on Survey Plan documents. From 2020 electronic survey plans are accepted by Council’s if accompanied by a Form 18A (Landowners Consent). Once the Survey Plan is endorsed, the Council issue a Form 18B as their consent. Additionally, Form 18C is general consent for Community Management Statements (CMS) associated with Building Format Plans (BFP), allowing CMS documents to be lodged electronically too.
By lodging electronic versions the risk of delayed, lost or damaged items is significantly reduced.
Summary:
- Form 18A – Registered Owners/Lessees Consent
- Form 18B – Planning Body Approval of Survey Plan
- Form 18C – Planning Body CMS Notation
What is the name of the department responsible for registering survey plans?
Department of Resources – Updated June 2021.
OUR cadastral surveying services Include
We are proud to offer a wide variety of cadastral survey services to our clients. Some of the key areas that we work in are listed below.
- Greenfield Land Subdivisions
- Infill Land Developments
- Community Title Developments
- Tenure and Titling Strategy
- Boundary Identification
- Commercial Building Leases
What is Engineering Surveying?
Engineering surveying is the discipline of surveying associated with the design and construction of buildings, roads, airports, tunnels, etc.
When do I need an Engineering Surveyor?
An engineering surveyor plays a critical role in the life of a development project. Before design work can commence it is important to have accurate spatial information to inform the process. Whether you are looking to build a new freeway or simply renovate your house it is necessary to have a digital model of the relevant site features. Generally, this is referred to as a Contour and Detail survey or a Digital Terrain Model.
During construction works an engineering surveyor will perform set out so that everything is built in the correct position.
After construction, an engineering surveyor will often be required to survey the location of new services, new buildings and other features. This provides further information to others who will use or manage the new infrastructure and demonstrates to the relevant authorities that things have been built correctly.
our Engineering surveying services include
- 3D Contour and Detail
- Establish Site Control
- Civil Setout
- Building Setout
- As Constructed
- ADAC Data Submission
- Deformation Monitoring
SPATIAL TECHNOLOGIES
As new spatial technologies continue to emerge our team is investing in research, development and purchasing new equipment so that we can offer our customers the very best. Some of our new tech toys include a GNSS enabled drone which provides centimetre-level positioning data over very large sites within minutes and a laser scanner that measure more than one million points per second allowing us to map inside and outside of all kinds of structures to millimetre accuracies.
New technologies are helping us to offer exceptional value for money and a wide range of new information to our clients.
Our spatial services include
- Photogrammetry
- UAV (Drone) Surveys
- Laser Scanning
- Slope Analysis
- Mapping
- 3D Revit Models