Surveying services
Spatial Services helps make accurate surveying possible in NSW. Accurate surveying protects property rights, prevents boundary disputes and helps ensure safety in construction. Learn more.
How we support surveying
We help surveyors and people who use spatial information (including the public) across NSW.
Spatial Services has 3 main areas of work relating to surveying:
- survey information – providing accurate survey and mapping data
- cadastral integrity – protecting and improving property boundary information
- geodesy – measuring the Earth to support accurate location information.
Our responsibilities
Under direction from the Surveyor-General, our surveying work includes:
- helping set national location standards and measurement systems. Learn more about geodesy – the science of surveying
- keeping the State Control Survey Network (made up of permanent survey marks) up to date and working well by adding to and maintaining more than 250,000 survey marks across NSW
- sharing information about the survey marks
- undertaking surveying to update the Digital Cadastral Database (DCDB) – a property-boundary database that state and local councils can access via SCIMS Online)
- helping create accurate maps from aerial photos and LiDAR (laser scanning from aircraft)
- using drones to map essential telecommunications tower infrastructure across NSW
- protecting survey markers and property boundary records (through the Preservation of Survey Infrastructure process)
- writing legislation, Surveyor-General Directions and guidelines for best practice standards for survey work
- maintaining access to the Australian Geospatial Reference Frame through accurate position information at permanent survey marks.
Survey information
State Control Survey Network
Spatial Services looks after the State Control Survey Network (SCSN), which is the physical network of:
- permanent survey marks across NSW (steel pins, plaques, pillars, trig stations, and so on)
- beaconed trigonometrical stations
- Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS)
The network is an essential base for a complete and accurate spatial data infrastructure. It helps surveyors achieve accuracy when they:
- manage assets
- find and set property boundaries
- work on the construction of roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
Surveyors use the SCSN information through the Survey Control Information Management System (SCIMS) database.
Spatial Services manages the impact of survey mark destruction through the Preservation of Survey Infrastructure (POSI) program.
We encourage surveyors to help us maintain and improve the State Control Survey Network by adding new permanent survey markers across NSW.
Before your measurements can be added to the Survey Information Management System (SCIMS), they must meet the professional standards set out in the Surveyor-General's Direction No.12.
The Direction explains the rules for:
- building survey markers
- processing measurements
- adjusting survey networks
- writing clear reports, as well as
- what positioning technology to use, and
- best-practice surveying methods.
When you submit control-survey data to SCIMS, you must include:
- a survey report
- the location of each marker in locality sketch plans.
The Control Surveys and SCIMS resource pack includes a survey report template, example reports, and a GPS/GNSS log sheet template (PDF and Excel) to help you prepare and submit your survey data.
To submit AUSPOS results, visit AUSPOS Submission via the Spatial Services Customer Hub.
To lodge your survey plan online for registration, visit NSW Land Registry Services e-Plan.
CORSnet-NSW
Spatial Services runs CORSnet‑NSW, a network of satellite‑tracking stations across the state that help find exact positions anywhere in NSW.
CORSnet helps:
- users find accurate positions
- guide machinery for construction, mining and farming
- support surveying research and innovation
- contribute to the Asia‑Pacific Reference Frame (which is used to define our national datum).
Cadastral integrity
Registered surveyors maintain the cadastral integrity, or make survey plans that show where property boundaries (the cadastre) are.
Survey plans are required when:
- land is subdivided into new parcels
- part of a property is used for a specific purpose (like an easement or lease).
Spatial Services, through the Office of the Surveyor-General, provides the legal framework under which surveyors must conduct their surveys. We publish directions and guidance through the Surveyor-General Directions.
Exemptions
The Office of the Surveyor-General can:
- grant exemptions from complying with the requirements of the Surveying and Spatial Information Regulation 2024
- approve certain surveying activities.
Surveying standards
The Board of Surveying and Spatial Information (BOSSI) sets the standards for surveyors in NSW. Only surveyors registered with BOSSI can prepare survey plans.
These standards help surveyors to:
- keep property boundaries accurate across NSW
- support the property market
- protect community interests.
Spatial Services implements and monitors these standards.
Geodesy
Geodesy is the scientific aspect of surveying and its principles are fundamental to everything that uses position and height.
Spatial Services participates in geodetic activities, many of which support national initiatives:
- Geodetic Survey Network
- Geocentric Datum of Australia (GDA)
- Australian Height Datum (AHD)
- Geoid determination and AUSGeoid
- Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)
- Continuously Operating Reference Stations
(CORS) - Positional and Local Uncertainty