GNSS and the Convergence of Geodesy and the Cadastre in Australia

At the time of settlement in Australia, all land was proclaimed as belonging to the King of England. To expedite settlement, land was granted as quickly as possible by only three overworked surveyors from the New South Wales Department of Lands. With no survey control, rudimentary measuring devices and pressure to grant land promptly, the cadastre evolved in an unstructured manner. Additionally land was granted in an old system style (imported from England) of “metes and bounds”. This system was subsequently superceded by the far simpler and more robust Torrens Title system which remains in place today. The fundamental obligation of cadastral surveying in Australia is to mark out the boundary as was the original intention of the first surveyor. Redefining the boundary of a subject lot of land must fit with surrounding properties and the cadastral surveyor is charged with the responsibility of redefining that land based on all the evidence. Cadastral surveying therefore works from the part to the whole in direct contravention of the fundamental role of geodesy: “working from the whole to the part”. In Australia, the geodetic network has really only evolved from the 1950s with the introduction of the Australian Geodetic Datum (AGD66) 1966 followed by AGD84 an