Digital Lodgement of Cadastral Survey Data in Australia - Centre for ...

using this combination of programs, it takes advantage of the integrated nature of data transfer, manipulation and calculation
functions provided by this application’s environment.
Queensland also have a surveyor accreditation scheme in place, whereby only 10% of plans lodged are examined for quality
assurance, with the remainder passed without checking. This has dramatically reduced the plan assessment workload, however
it is considered that the introduction of digital lodgement would also assist in automating some of the assessment checks
(Rush, 1997).
Although there has been substantial work done in the area of digital lodgement in Queensland, Rush (1997) stated that in the
absence of cadastral reform, digital lodgement only provides a limited reduction in the total cadastral data processing workload.
He emphasised the need for complete cadastral reform in order to provide the greatest benefits for both surveyors and the
government (Rush, 1997).
South Australia
The responsible authority for digital lodgement in South Australia is the Land Services Group (LSG), within the Land
Boundaries Branch. One of the main aims of the LSG is to develop an Electronic Plan Lodgement System, resulting in improved
efficiency for both the surveyor and the Land Boundaries Branch, less work to amend mathematical errors on plans and
surveys, and reduced examination times (Land Services Group, 1997).
The issue of digital lodgement first arose in 1991, where a working party was established to examine the feasibility of the
proposal. However, the main conclusion was that there were not sufficient technological resources available (Land Services
Group, 1997).
Digital lodgement then became a prominent issue in the 1994/95 LSG Strategic Plan, where another working party was created.
Part of this included the distribution of a questionnaire to all surveyors and draftspersons who lodged surveys with LSG,
seeking their views on electronic plan lodgement. 73% of respondents indicated support for the electronic lodgement of plans
with the response clearly showing a high level of technological awareness in the industry (Land Services Group, 1997).
The main findings of the working party were that a plan would still be required, and that initially electronic plan lodgement
should only involve capture of data shown on the face of the plan. In the long term, the LSG proposes to develop a system
whereby the survey plan comprises two parts, the plan graphic and a disk containing the digital information extracted from the
plan (Land Services Group, 1997). As stated by Kentish (1997), the LSG intends to firstly capture the mathematical and survey
mark information in a digital form, and then later expand to include the key textual data. In the meantime, surveyors and clients
will still require a hard copy plan, which in the future is envisaged to be lodged as an electronic image.
Western Australia
The responsibility for the validation and registration of survey plans for both freehold and crown estates in Western Australia
resides with the Department of Land Administration (DOLA) through its Land Titles Division (Cribb and Higham, 1995). As a
result of a government reform program in 1995, digital lodgement was introduced in Western Australia in that year with all plans
being lodged required to be accompanied by a digital record of the plan.
Prior to the reform, a great deal of time was spent on survey examination as it was necessary to manually key in angles and
distances to validate polygon areas and dimensions, which was viewed as a duplication of those processes already carried out
by the surveyor. It was recognised that if survey firms could supply digital data, then the examination process could be
streamlined hence facilitating earlier update of the DCDB. Digital lodgement was seen to be a progressive step as many
surveyors in WA had already been providing DOLA with digital files.
The opportunity was therefore taken by DOLA to fully automate the digital lodgement of plans by surveyors. One of the results
of the program was the development of the Cadastral Survey Data (CSD) format, which was designed to provide for data to be
extracted from various existing formats in the market place (Cribb and Higham, 1995). There were seven software packages used
in the private sector in WA, and of these, four have had successful CSD conversions written for them (Hyde, 1997). All survey
plans lodged with DOLA (both Crown and freehold) must now be accompanied by a digital record of the plan on a floppy disk
in the CSD format (Hyde, 1997).
The digital data file is used in four different ways (Cribb, 1997):
• for initial tracking and lodgement of the plan;
• for scaled plots for initial indexing and final reflection on public plan;
• for automatic adjustment of closures of each parcel; and