Surveying standards and forms

The Department of Natural Resources and Mines, Manufacturing, and Regional and Rural Development is responsible for establishing standards for surveying in Queensland. Survey standards and approved forms are provided below.

Cadastral surveys

General survey standards

• Cadastral survey requirements (PDF, 4.9MB)

Additional requirements and explanatory material

• Registrar of Titles directions for the preparation of plans
• Redefining the Queensland-New South Wales border: guidelines for surveyors (PDF, 572KB)
• Survey requirements for mining tenures (PDF, 587KB)

Approved forms for use on cadastral plans

• Form 12 – Certificate for survey records (PDF, 22KB)
• Form 13 – Certificate for cadastral plans (PDF, 23KB)
• Form 14 – Certificate for cadastral plans (PDF, 30KB)
• Form 18 – Certificate for cadastral plans-compiled (PDF, 21KB)
• Form 19 – Certificate for cadastral plans (PDF, 23KB)

Resources checklist (CSR v8.01)

• Survey plan audit checklist (DOCX, 54KB)

Control surveys

Control surveys must comply with the Intergovernmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping ICSM standards and practices for control surveys.

New permanent survey marks

Details of new permanent marks must be provided to the department on the following form:

• Form 6 – Permanent survey mark plan (XLSX, 212KB).

For information on how to prepare and lodge permanent survey mark plans, read:

• Completion of permanent survey mark plans (PDF, 492KB).

Maintenance of permanent survey marks

Email CadastralAdminDataHelp@resources.qld.gov.au with any updates to existing permanent marks or information about any irregularities observed in the field. A mark maintenance worksheet is incorporated into the permanent survey mark plan form.

Also consider...

• To submit surveying forms, see Surveying submissions and enquiries.
• Read about the removal of parish and county information from land transactions and information systems in Surveying Alert 17 and Surveying Alert 18.
• Access historical parish boundary information from the historical parish directory.
• Find out more about international and national standards activity from the Inter-Governmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping (ICSM) and Standards Australia.
• Historical Directions to Surveyors are now available online. It is a collection of historical Queensland rules, directions, guidelines and memoranda to surveyors produced since 1847.
  • Contact the Surveyors Board of Queensland for information on surveyor registration.