The Survey Mark Infrastructure – Is It Doing the Job?

For many years the coordination of surveys in Australia has been encouraged through the placement and connection to the growing network of survey marks (SMs) in each state. The connection of cadastral surveys to the survey mark infrastructure has facilitated the improvement and maintenance of other spatial databases such as the Digital Cadastral Data Bases (DCDB’s). These networks of survey marks are usually managed and maintained by the state surveying and mapping agencies on behalf of the spatial information community. With the downsizing of the government agencies, their ability to coordinate and maintain these marks has come under increasing pressure. Although advances have been made in the connection of the survey mark infrastructure to the cadastre, the actual coordination of survey marks appears to have declined in some states.